//------------------------------// // CH6: Into the storm // Story: The journey // by Dashed_Brony //------------------------------// "G... Gah!" He had tried getting up. It was his first reaction to waking up, knowing just how he had passed out, worried the timber wolves had returned. One hoove to his chest, he was laying on his back, and he remained that way. The sudden attempt at getting up had been cancelled out by his own reaction to pain, and as soon as it kicked in, he was at the ground once more. He had noticed the tickling feeling of fabric across his hooves and chest. Even his head was partly mummified. Looking around, he saw Toby sit a few feet away, digging in the ground. "H-Hey Toby...!" He tried shouting, but the aching pain halted him from continuing. The unicorn sprinted over to him, with a wide smile across his face. "And why are you so happy?" He grumbled. The pain was aggitating him slightly, and seeing Toby smile only made it worse. "Because somepony came along and handed me the bandages you are wrapped in. That, and you just woke up. You've been out for a good three days after all..." The colt's voice lowered as he finished off the sentence. "Oh... No wonder I feel so..." *Rumble, rumble* "Uhm... Sorry about that" He blushed. Three days had passed, and he hadn't neither eaten, nor had anything to drink. The body hardly required anything while asleep though, so he wasn't at the verge of death, just very, VERY hungry. "Oh, don't worry about it. Whomever that stranger that had bypassed also secured us some food. I know it's not the biggest type of meal, but we got ourselves some sunflower sandwhiches" His mouth was watering at the thought of it. It was his favourite type. He managed to pull himself up from the ground, after a few painful strains, and help from Toby. The unicorn could hardly contain his laughter at the lost vision Laxed had gotten, staring into the open skies with enough of a hungry look to scare wolves away in fear of being feasted upon. Coming back, he held out two sandwhiches. They were gone before he could even try to say 'Here you go', and so was the bowl of water he had brought right afterwards. As he sat there, he had remembered Toby mentioning 'Stranger'. No name? No words? Nothing? His curiosity bit in as his hunger sated, and so, he questioned it. "Well... She..." She? Could it be the one he had been saved from before? He continued listening. "She didn't give me any name. She wore a hood, so it was hard to tell what she looked like, but she had a blue mane and white fur." He continued whenever he could, struggling to fully remember, putting a hoove to his cheek, looking to the skies with an obvious thinking face. It was her. No doubt. The mix of colors was rare as it could be, and if it hadn't been for the hood, he was sure Toby would've mentioned she was a unicorn. "Why do you ask, exactly?" His gaze fell upon Laxed once more. "Oh. Nothing, nothing! Just curiosity is all" Again, he repeated the same eye-bewilderned, mouth-twisting obvious lie of a face. Toby, despite easily telling the lie from truth, decided it best not to chase the case. At least not during recovery time. They had finally made it to the peak of the moutain they were targeting to cross. He had heard of some sturdy ponies far up in the mountains called 'Frosters'. Built with a thicker coat, bigger and stronger, and way more durable than the average equine, some of them could even compete with Celestia or Luna while she was still Nightmare moon, in terms of size. Their target was to find a city containing them, and in Laxed's hopes, dropping Toby off. He had gotten enough of a beating from the many nights of being a punching bag. It might not have been fair to drop Toby off, considering how young he was, but he was no father, and responsibility wasn't his strongest side. The food the hooded stranger had dropped them would last at least a week or two, even if they split it evenly amongst one another. That was plenty time to cross the mountain. At least, that was the plan. Not that things had gone as planned up until this point, but they had both decided to stay optimistic about it. But there was no point in setting out just yet. They still had many days worth of food, and Laxed had to recover. He could hardly stand up as it was. But time passed quickly, even as they weren't progressing. It was just the routine of story-telling and even playing around with sticks, like they were two of the great warriors in the stories that were told. Many days passed before he could fully walk on two again, and could actually drop the bandages, as long as a week to be exact. Toby was no medic. He was a warrior of a unicorn more than anything else. There was no other logical explanation for his magic being this brilliant at an age like his. He couldn't help mend wounds, and the stranger had supposedly done her best to make sure the process took the least amount of time. But as the week came to an end, and he finally stood and ran as he had before the timber-incident, they had to stop pretending to be great mighty heroes, and be actual, weaker and more humble explorers. The mountain they were about to cross, was snowy, big, and as the snow was at its worst, they had to walk forth to progress. It was probably one of the worst mountain to cross due to how badly it snowed. 'Into the heart of the storm' as some called it. They had almost regret the decision, and wanted to walk around, but that would take more time than their food would last. Going back to eating berries all day, and go hungry wasn't very tempting either. He couldn't just fly over it all either. That would mean carrying Toby on without being able to leave him in a town. The decision was one and alone to go over the mountain. They took their first step onto the rocky surface, replacing the green, soft and grassy enjoyable ground they had stood on earlier. Wheter they were prepared for the stiff climb upwards or not, there was no turning back. At least not if they wanted to make it to the next town without feasting on berries throughout the journey. - End - (Author's note: I know this chapter might seem lazy, but I hate to rush things and make half the things they do go completely off the map about how unrealistic it is. For that reason, I dragged it out somewhat, despite trying not to. Part of the charm of the story is to make it enjoyable, lasting, and give the characters enough traits to make them actual characters... I.E Laxed's thoughts on dumping a poor kid in whatever village he could come across without thoughts for Toby. Not exactly a very good decision, but nopony's perfect)