//------------------------------// // Words // Story: Touch the Sky // by Between Lines //------------------------------// The silence was broken by a bark. “There she is!” “What?” Dash’s head snapped away from the creature, over to where an entire pack of police dogs were huddled around the gate. How had they found her? Only she knew the creature would have come to the gardens! She’d even taken back alleys, doubled back, used every trick in the book. She prepared to shout something back at them, except the moment she took a breath to do so, she nearly gagged. It suddenly occurred to Dash that she’d spent the afternoon sweating in a filthy tunnel, followed by lighting trash on fire not a foot away from herself. Honestly, they probably would have been able to find her three cities over in a sewer. She had to pinch her nose just to catch her wits, and resolved to absolutely, positively, not stop running from her own stink until she could roll herself in a tub of soap, and maybe lye. She turned back to the creature in her grasp, the exact moment its big round eyes turned to hers. In that instant, there was a moment of the kind of universal understanding that can only be shared between fugitives. Whoever they were, they were both in this together. Without a word, Dash let go, and took off, the flap of wings telling her that the creature was following her lead. She made a beeline for the wheat fields, the tall waving strands offering total concealment. Dash smirked to herself. She’d lead the whole pack in there, run circles around them, then dart out once nobody was outside to see her go. The perfect plan. She dove in, the strands whipping against her face. Bracing her paw in front of her, she turned and weaved, cutting back across her trail, trying to confuse the path as much as she could. One officer came barreling at her out of the stalks, but a quick turn on her toes left him staggering past her. Another nearly got her, then another, then another. “What is going on?!” She shouted, panting, her teeth locked in a grimace. It was like they could see her through the damn stalks! Her ears caught the sound of flapping, and she looked back. There was the creature, right behind her, flying visibly above the wheat. “Oh, come on.” Ducking another lunge, she simply tore right out of the field, vaulting over two startled dogs that had been waiting for her. Landing with a roll behind them, she was off before they could even turn around, kicking up dirt as she tore off for the heart of the gardens. All the while, her brain ran through her options, which currently looked pretty slim with a whole pack right on top of her. The creature squawked, and she stopped to glance at it. It was looking back at her, one of its wickedly sharp claws gesturing at a small concrete shed in the heart of the greenery. Dash frowned. She knew it was scared, but hiding wasn’t going to do them any good! “No, we can’t hide! We gotta escape!” Dash thrust her paws out towards the outer gates, where they could maybe find a place to vault over and get out. In response, the creature just rolled its eyes and took off for the shed, leaving Dash cursing in its wake. “Stupid, flappy, paddle bat!” Dash raced after her, only arriving just as the creature landed before the metal door to the shed. Before she could even begin to argue with the creature, it reached over and yanked out one of the odd paddle hairs on its wings. It quickly took several chomps on it with its beak, and jammed the now bent end into the lock on the door. Again, before Dash could speak up, the door let out a click, and the creature ducked inside, waving Dash in after it. “Okay, that was pretty cool.” Dash followed her inside, pulling the door closed and plunging them into darkness. There was another startled squawk from the creature, but Dash quickly found the gas switch, and flipped the lights on. They’d stepped into a narrow stairwell, the wall labeled maintenance. Dash glanced down the stairwell, spiraling down to a wider concrete floor below. “Sick, I’ve never been in… hey!” The creature was already trotting down the stairs, her four legged gait making the operation somewhat awkward. Every other step her wings would flare out for balance, only to bump into the walls and make her snarl in displeasure. Dash had to fight the urge to giggle as she watched the awkward sight, following the creature down slowly. Eventually, the reached the main floor where all the machinery sat. The gardens were one of the biggest projects in the city, seeing as they fed a lot of dogs. All day, massive water pumps churned away alongside the steam mains that kept them running. There were rows and rows of gauges and posted advisories. Dash glanced at a few, most of them notes on which pumps were being sticky, or ‘never switch on 3 while 5 is going’ and other instructions. She snorted and turned to look for the creature, only to find it with its claws dug into one of the housing screws. “Hey hey hey!” Dash charged up, only to get a surprisingly vicious snarl from such a small creature. She backed off a step. “Don’t mess with those! That’s like a triple felony or something! They throw you out in the dark for that!” Heedless of her words, the creature deftly unscrewed the cover to one of the water mains, stepping back as the liquid promptly started gushing out. There was a lot of it, seeing as the tube was well over a dog’s shoulders in width. It suddenly dawned on Dash what the creature was doing. “That… that’s genius! We’ll escape through the water pipes! They empty out in the main cistern!” She let out a howl of triumph, only for the sound to be answered by the banging of claws on the access door above. “Oh, come on!” The creature started hopping from foot to food, her eyes flicking back up to the stairwell as the banging of claws turned to the scratch of a key in the lock. Dash glanced at the water main, and her mind flashed back to an old story she’d heard. There was a job for inspecting the water mains, making sure they were still clean and clear, that was part of why they were so big. But then there were stories of dogs getting forgotten down them, someone turning the water back on before realizing there was still someone down there. She grit her teeth. “I’m really sorry about this!” She grabbed the creature, stuffing it in the tube with another squawk, and quickly ran over to the controls to the pump. Right next to one of the gauges, helpfully labeled pressure, there was a big red lever that could only do one thing. Taking it in both paws, she hauled hard on it, the screech of freed steam followed by the thunder of suddenly rushing water. The creature disappeared without a peep, just as the door above slammed open. She slammed her paw into the lever, wincing as it broke just shy of breaking her paw in return. “One way to take a bath.” Dash said, throwing herself into the pounding water. It seized her the moment she touched it, slamming her painfully into the side of the panel opening, before dragging her all the way inside. She slammed and bounced against the walls, the air they’d let into the pipe turning the ride into a pounding brawl of white water. She would have screamed, if she could have kept her mouth open along enough. She went a full twenty rounds in the ring with the walls of the pipe before it finally spat her out, dumping her into a falling, sparkling sea of droplets. For a moment, she thought she could see the night sky her father had written about, before the cold waters of the reservoir slammed into her hard enough to do concrete proud. She flailed to the surface, gasping, and clawed her way through the water to the shore. The creature was already there, soaking, sullen, and shooting her a glare that she probably deserved. “Yeah, yeah.” Dash flopped out on the concrete ‘shore,’ panting loudly. She slowly felt herself up and down, wincing as her paws reached bruises and cuts. At least nothing was broken, and she smelled a little better than before. At least they’d bought some time for themselves. She was just starting to feel good about things when she realized her bag was missing. “Where’s my… hey!” The creature had her bag, the soggy container already opened, and the contents laid out. Most of them were now useless snacks and a letter or two she’d failed to deliver, but fortunately her father’s journal was an explorer’s journal, designed to keep the water out so long as it was sealed. Of course, the creature had unsealed it, and was now leafing through the pages. “Hey! That’s--” Dash almost finished, before the creature rounded on her with an outright roar that knocked her flat on her tail. “But I’ll let you borrow it,” Dash swallowed. “Just this once.” As she watched, the creature flipped through page after page, its claws showing even greater care than Dash’s own. After a few pages, it started glancing around, locating a loose chunk of concrete. It pressed the chunk against the ground, and began to drag, the chunk leaving a rough, pale scratch. With a nod and an approving squawk, the creature continued, before finally waving at Dash. “Can you read this?” Read the scratches. “Holy crap! I totally can!” She felt herself begin to wag. “This is so cool, what’s your name? Did you really come from the surface? What’s it like? Are there--” Her questions came to a sudden halt as the creature thrust the chunk at her, shooting her a flat look. “Oh… you can’t speak, only read. Uhhh...” Dash held the stone, and then scratched a message of her own. “What is your name?” She passed the stone back to the creature. “Twilight Sparkle.” It wrote. “Pfft, what kind of dumb name is that?” Dash asked, before remembering she needed to write the question. When she glanced up to take the stone, however, the flat look from Twilight indicated some things didn’t need translation. Frantic scribbling ensued. “I will have you know that it is tradition in the zixzmv disciplines to adopt a klmb name, so as to continue the lineage of apprentice to master as has carried on unbroken since the days of Platinum [excepting the Ofmzi interregnum of 213 as stipulated by the vjfrmlc concordat of...” “Okay!” Dash threw up her paws in the also hopefully universal gesture of surrender. “It’s a great name, I’m sorry!” Twilight puffed up triumphantly, and handed Dash the stone. “How can you read?” she wrote. “Your language appears to be a structural offshoot of Pre-classical Abyssinian, using the same grammar structure and symbolism, but with a completely disjointed phonetic association that I suspect--” Dash promptly snatched the stone from Twilight. “How did you get here?” she wrote instead. Twilight snatched back the stone with a glare, and started to write. “Neglecting the finer points of the school of gvovkligzgrlm and general zixzmv theory--” Dash cleared her throat, and Twilight sighed, writing a new sentence below. “I need my nztrx staff.” “Where is it?” Dash asked, finding her own rock. Twilight paused, clearly thinking, before starting to scribble in the rock. For a moment, Dash couldn’t figure out what Twilight was writing, until she realized Twilight wasn’t writing, but drawing. As she watched, Dash felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Oh, come on.” Dash muttered, staring at a surprisingly accurate recreation of the Arfberta sheriff's department.