//------------------------------// // Chapter thirty five, Far North of Normal: Un-usual familiarity. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Alpaca Accretion, a day or two later, Arizona- “So in the north we have the reindeer, to the west the sheep, to the east the cattle who eventually joined with Equestria under Celestia and finally to the south near the dragon lands the longma. The alpaca traveled between all four other tribes and stopped off at points nearby to settle down for a while and do some trading with these tribes.” I was just summarizing everything I’ve heard so far. “Then there’s the unicorns of light who settled down in a forest between all five tribes where you changed you’re routing to meet with them between every other tribe?” Pepper Paca nodded, she put her forehead against mine and looked into my eyes gently. Eventually she placed a hoof on my chest while smiling, Pepper then proceeded to do the same with Velvet and Paprika. The only thing she did different was that she caressed Paprika with a hoof and her daughter nuzzled into the touch, a quick cuddle and the two alpaca became all smiles afterwards. Pepper was basically saying goodbye to us before we set out for the reindeer village of Rein, we tried to leave only to get swarmed by the cria that were Paprika’s younger siblings. Pepper let out a bark of laughter and Tamale joined her a second after. The cria looked like they didn’t want their big sister, or even us by association, to leave. Pepper eventually got them all under control and off of us, Paprika’s entire family waved us off as we set out. We were restocked on supplies. With food, water and the damaged tents repaired, we set off from the nomadic alpaca tribe. I was thankful that we didn’t have to set up and sleep in igloos anymore. Ratatoskr visited us as soon as we were out of sight of the alpacas and we sent him back to Kuril to tell her that we were doing fine, we also stated she eventually could lend Celestia some aid with something when a prisoner named Snow Bank was placed into her hooves. The alpacas would eventually give the emperor penguin over to Celestia for detainment. “So Paprika… your people protected the lambkin since they were in the west when the shadows started attacking everyone at night right?” Velvet asked as we relaxed on a sleigh of ice being pulled by Paprika. “Mm-hmm!” Paprika cheerfully intoned as she pulled us along, she was in good cheer and had been very happy to spend time with her family. “The lambkin must have been quite lucky the alpacas were there or else they might have been wiped out in the initial attacks.” Now that you said it Velvet, the alpaca did protect the sheep pretty well from what Pepper told us of the shadow war. To think it happened a little under one thousand years ago. “I know I’m being silly, but you don’t suppose that my parents could be the holders of the reindeer key? If my noble blood came about just because of a key that my family owned, then I just might destroy Rein in a fit of rage.” “Oh don’t be so dramatic Fluff Butt.” Though I did take the idea that her parents might have the key seriously, if they did then things might be only slightly complicated. I don’t think Velvet would mind me beating them up though. “So what are your parent’s names? Just so I know who to aim my hooves at when we get there.” “Please don’t start a fight with anyone else when we get to Rein, it’s only my parents that I have issues with and I’d rather not tell you until we arrive. While I do not exactly have any friends in Rein, I don’t have any enemies either unless they hate me for my fam… I can’t even call them that with a straight face. Let’s just say there might be some distaste for my nobility as a whole.” Oh right, Velvet was a noble by birth or at least that’s what she says. When I think of what her parents could be like, I started imagining very large sticks with nowhere to be shoved given how cagey Velvet acted about being gay. “So… because cattle kind is involved, does that mean your mother possibly has two of the keys?” Velvet was still a little dodgy about heading towards Rein, but we would eventually have to talk about it. For now, I was currently thinking of what my mother could possibly be doing right this instant. “Don’t know, we have to go to where the cattle kind settlement is. We can talk to someone there about where the key is and who currently has it. It’s guaranteed to be our next stop .” Trying to imagine what my girlfriend’s biological parents could possibly be like again, my mind came to the only logical conclusion. They were two big sticks with two smaller sticks shoved into them in as inappropriate a manner that the smaller two sticks can possibly be shoved into said bigger sticks. “If it’s with my mother, then we won’t exactly have to worry about that key. If it’s still there, then we find out what we have to do to acquire it for ourselves and possibly ask around if my mother has been around.” “Sounds like a plan… as much as one you could possibly think up anyway.” Velvet crossed her hooves over her chest and hugged herself while looking off to the side, she didn’t look so haughty about calling me out on my intelligence. I couldn’t feel insulted when she was so afraid of going to Rein like this. “Not that I have any better ideas personally.” Admitting that she doesn’t have a plan either? It must be serious if she’s not trying to antagonize me into a fight. The reasons why she came with me to help me look for what happened to my mother, is because she loved me and she had no idea what to do with herself otherwise. I’m glad to have both her and Paprika around. “It’ll be okay Velvet, you’ll see.” I put a hoof around her and managed to see a smile tug at her lips, that smile was taken away when Velvet’s ear flicked and she turned her head looking in a direction. I heard something too, sounded like something crying out for help. “Paprika stop the sleigh!” At Velvet’s command, Paprika puffed her fluff up and the sleigh started to slow down immensely upon making contact with her body. Once the sleigh was nearly completely stopped, Velvet hopped out and ran in direction of that noise. “Stay with our supplies and the sleigh Paprika.” I followed Velvet leaving our supplies to Paprika. Once I caught up with Velvet, it seems we both happened upon an unusual sight. A small creature being assaulted by an owl, the little creature was cowering against the trunk of the tree as the snowy owl swooped about and turned around to aim at the quivering form with their talons. The owl started to swoop down for it, only for an icicle to shoot past it making it squawk loudly in fright. “Go on, shoo, go away!” The owl was properly spooked into flying away by Velvet threatening it with several more shards of ice fired in its general direction. Once the owl was gone, she then proceeded to approach the tiny frightened critter. “Are you alright? It’s okay, everything will be fine.” Velvet spoke softly to the shivering little creature as she came up next to it. “Come on now, show me where it hurts. I promise I can help you, a friend of mine named Cheerilee taught me some first aid.” The light icy blue skinned creature was small, by my estimates almost the size of a Breezy only a little bit larger. At Velvet’s voice it uncurled and pulled its tiny little limbs away from its face and opened its big silver colored eyes to look at her. It had a large gash in its chest from where some of the owl’s claws struck it and it was shivering badly. “Oh you poor thing… just hold on and we’ll disinfect and bandage this up right quick.” Velvet quickly got the supplies from her bag. Starting off, Velvet soaked a cotton swab with medical alcohol. “I’m sorry, but this may sting a bit.” She gently swabbed the wounds to make sure the thing didn’t get an infection and she wrapped it’s torso with a bandage to staunch the bleeding. The creature had hissed in pain for a bit, but eventually it started to smile and look on at Velvet with clear awe. “What is it?” I’ve never seen something that looked so tiny and frail, aside from a Breezy of course. Nothing could be as frail and helpless as a fairy pony, it’s been a long time since I last saw one. Grace took me to watch one of their pollen gathering groups heading home, good times. “It’s an ice sprite, they have a tendency to bond with reindeer as our most commonly occurring familiars.” The little ice sprite, as Velvet called it, wrapped its tiny limbs around her leg and cuddled against it. “For some reason these darling little creatures just love being near reindeer and doing small things for us even if they don’t form a familiar bond, mostly to the point of absurdity and absolute worship.” The ice sprite started bowing to Velvet and started making prayer gestures towards her. That was pretty fast to start worshipping someone like Velvet, it was ridiculous even. If I were the ice sprite, it looks male, if I were him I would at least get to know Velvet before going into full immediate worship like that. “Well that’s quite apparent by the way he’s latched on to you fluff butt… say there little fella, do you have any family?” The ice sprite nodded at me and then pointed straight up at Velvet. “Yeah, that figures. I meant do you have anyone else to be with or go to?” The ice sprite held its right limb to its mouth looking thoughtful. After a moment he shook his head no and continued to clutch to Velvet’s leg with a happy smile. “I think he’s forming a familiar bond with me. It’s about time I got a familiar and one with such beautiful eyes.” Sweet as honey those words were Velvet, you were making the little guy blush something fierce. We heard a squeal and turned to Paprika lunging for the little sprite, he squeaked loudly in fear and covered his small face with his tiny limbs. “Time out, time out!” The alpaca froze in mid-air and gave Velvet a questioning look. “Paprika… I know you want to hug the new cute and cuddly friend I just made, but he’s been recently injured and just went through a very traumatizing situation already. Will you give me time to hoof off... I want to say Tinsel… does that work as a name for you dear?” The little sprite gave an affirmative and saluted with a tiny limb and went back to worshipping the ground Velvet stood on, I guess his name was Tinsel now. “Right, anyway, let me hoof Tinsel off to Arizona and then you can hug, kiss and be affectionate with me as much as you want. All I want from you in return is to give Tinsel the time to recover and to not traumatize him even worse like you were about to do.” With her bargain made, Velvet watched as the floating Paprika moved her front limbs to take on a thinking pose. “Also how are you floating in mid-air like that?” I quietly took Tinsel off of Velvet’s hooves as Paprika absently tapped her chin with a hoof. Paprika eventually nodded at the bargain, shrugged at me in cluelessness and then her momentum started right back up making her slam right into Velvet where she started to kiss, cuddle and nuzzle her affectionately. Velvet wouldn’t be able to move for the next thirty minutes as she was peppered by Paprika’s lips. -Thirty minutes later- “Oh don’t mind Paprika dear Tinsel, she means well most of the time.” The slightly mussed up Velvet stated with a wide eyed haunted look. Paprika just wanted to show her some love and she finally did, it’s just unfortunate for our alpaca friend that Velvet isn’t taking it too well. The little ice sprite had been glaring at the alpaca for her excessive show of love for Velvet. One might even say Tinsel was jealous of Paprika, but he eventually nodded in respect that Paprika clearly had a great taste in reindeer. “So are you coming with us?” Hey, I thought it would be impolite to just drag Tinsel along with us without asking. Tinsel, the ice sprite, nodded cheerfully to me as he clung to Velvet. “Guess its official then, it’s a good thing ice sprites don’t eat much.” Velvet rubbed Tinsel’s chin gently and he made a cheerful appreciative noise for her, she then teased his pointed ears and he blushed vibrantly. “Why exactly are they called ice sprites anyway, does he have any special abilities that we should be wary of?” It would be a concern for me if I had to watch out for him whenever I got into a fight. “Well they can do minimal bits of ice magic personally, however they can also amplify any ice magic performed by a reindeer.” Picking up the gleefully giggling sprite, she brought him over to the sleigh and we sat back down. “Wait… where’s Paprika?” I blinked and heard the sound of an animal screaming, then we both watched as a bear ran around whining with a smiling Paprika clinging to them. “Paprika that’s not a teddy bear, let that poor bear go this instant!” Velvet set off after Paprika to prevent her from hugging the wildlife into extinction. I just sat down next to the ice sprite and he looked to me. “I’m Arizona, nice to meet you Tinsel.” I offered the tip of my hoof to the tiny being and it reached out with his little limb to shake it, I smiled at him and he smiled back. “No Paprika, alpacas aren’t supposed to fly like that!” What in the world made Velvet yell that and how could it ever be put into an explainable context with the bear? Tinsel glanced at me with worry and I shrugged. “I’m sure Velvet will be fine and doesn’t need my help.” I just leaned back and waited for them to get back. -A few hours later, Velvet- Paprika was still a nightmare to me. Even if I knew Paprika loved both Arizona and me, it just made things worse as it was hard to stay angry with her when she was so sugary sweet to us all the time. We still couldn’t control her at all, then again who could feasibly stop Paprika from hugging everything at least once? Arizona just laughed at my predicament with Paprika and then kissed my cheek, before saying something I wanted to hear. “We don’t have to get to Rein in a hurry Velvet.” I nuzzled against Arizona for that. “You seem tense Velvet, are you okay? Even Paprika thinks you needed more attention.” “I’m fine.” I felt Tinsel hug my belly and I smiled down at him, he was such a darling little sprite.