//------------------------------// // Chapter thirty eight, Shadows on The Range: The Hierophant. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The Range, Velvet- “I think we should be far enough away, enough so that I can slow down a little to keep my strength. It’s been a while since I’ve put in this much effort into moving about.” She sounded like quite the gentle and prim cow. Of course she was running around with dynamite strapped to her, so I was still a little wary of her. “Keep your guard up, there may be more scouting shadows out here.” “Those were just scouts?” That was a lot of shadows for being just scouts and I couldn’t keep the wavering out of my voice. If that was a scouting party, what was a hunting party like? “I think we still could have taken them!” On that, there was some room for doubt Arizona. “Oh I have no doubt of your groups combat prowess if you have both a fluffmancer and an assisted ice shaper, but would you have rather be injured and incapable of making it to safety by taking down just the one group? They tend to gather like a storm and if you aren’t in fortified location, then they will gather in droves quickly to overwhelm the unwary.” The cow said clearly as her head darted left and right as we moved along The Range under the moonlight. She was likely looking out for more shadow monsters. “I can assure you that there are more out here than the ones you saw Arizona.” “Wait a moment, I never told you my name!” That you didn’t Arizona, you only mentioned your nickname for Paprika when this cow showed up. “Of course you didn’t little Arid, you were so tiny when you were born. It put a lot of doctors into quite the tizzy as they were worried you were far too small and wouldn’t survive a year, but you proved to be a strong little calf despite that. Also you’re mother kind of harangued the doctors into giving her a second opinion a year later when you were still around and quite healthy despite your size.” This cow knew Arizona’s mother personally, this might be a good chance meeting for Arizona then. “Your mother was always attentive and if she wasn’t, then your father was always so very protective of you. Nothing could touch you while the both of them were around.” “Until that monster came?” Yes, that was what you told us about your father Arizona and you looked to be in pain. Repressing those memories can’t be healthy of you Arizona, but I’m going to hold my tongue on that as I was repressing the idea that my parents might not be as bad as I think they were. “Yes, that was a sad day indeed and that monster still couldn’t touch you, I’m surprised that you can remember that and am sorry that you do. If you don’t remember, your father was a major part of law enforcement for the place we’re heading to Arizona.” The cow seemed to sigh audibly. “He was beloved by the community and you’re going to meet three strong adoptive uncles who carried on with strength, justice and keeping the peace in his late absence. Tell me, what are all of you exactly doing out here? These days on The Range have been quite harrowing with these monsters appearing at night. They’ve been getting stronger up to this night, which seems to be going on forever.” “We’re looking for the cow settlement, we’ve been wandering around for a year since we couldn’t find it no matter how often we were assured it’s out here.” Might as well get in a few words myself. “We made a few stops in nearby places to resupply or survived off the rather icky land as needed. We’ve been to Las Pegasus a while ago and that was particularly fun… for a given definition of it. At least they had baths, when Arizona starts smelling it gets bad enough to a point that even our lovely Paprika here won’t even hug her. We were somewhat helped out of a jam by this group called the Gold Horseshoe Gals, they were a very nice bunch of old ponies. Don’t know about the high-strung mare they had with them though, she could learn a thing or two from her elders about how to relax.” “Well you’re in luck then, that’s where we’re headed. We’ll be in the moving town of Haven’s Patch soon enough.” Did the cow just say what I thought she said? “So it’s like Turtle Toga?” What was Arizona talking about? Oh wait… if I remember right, that’s where Jacky ‘Blackcap’ Chickadee La Perm came from isn’t it? The island that is almost impossible to find unless you’ve been there once before or happened to be born from there like Jacky apparently was. Almost impossible, because if the island was uninhabited previously, then how did someone eventually find it to settle a town there? Now that I thought of it, I should have wrote down Velvet Icerberg La Perm down on my entry form for the Tundra Tourney… old habits die hard I guess. “Exactly, Turtle Toga was one adventure I would rather not relive. Though the mechanics seem similar, they are completely different as Turtle Toga is slow moving. Haven’s Patch mostly just jumps a large distance in the blink of an eye once a week at random and without warning. If you are within the borders of the effect, you get moved with the whole town. It hasn’t bothered us cows for the most part except for one distinct sad occasion I’ll get back to in a minute, it certainly does give travelers conniptions when they try to find it when in dire need of supplies or… something else in your case.” The cow shook her head and shivered as she kept pulling us towards Haven’s Patch, which I believe to be town we can see in the distance. “There were so many crude ruffians in Turtle Toga, I can honestly say that your mother fit in rather well there Arizona. The pirates all even started treating Grace with respect when she accidentally knocked out those five pirate captains in a bar fight, many pirates even started calling her the pirate queen. Thankfully we figured out how to let Grace retire both gracefully and quickly before we started dragging pirates around everywhere we went.” “Aunt Grace never told me about that one, it sounds awesome! You’re Callie aren’t you, what happened between you, mom and Grace?” Now Arizona was sitting up and taking more of an interest in this… Callie. “Yes and while your mother was Maggie to Grace, I always called your mother Margaret personally. Minnesota Magnolia Arid was one cow that was hard to follow around, but Grace and I were particularly good at keeping up with her. Oh all those insane adventures we went on… the mysteries we’ve solved… the heights we climbed to… the many dangers we overcame…” The cow became somewhat silent after sounding so wistful. “At least until we had a bit of a falling out, it happened not too long after Texas died and I won’t going into great details as it was a private affair. Grace was probably unhappy with what happened to our friendship, but Maggie couldn’t stop trying to help make the world be a better place for you to live in Arizona. Still, you’re mother obviously made the right choice in giving you to Grace for safekeeping. You look strong and sound quite healthy for having almost been assaulted by shadow monsters, you’re also about as headstrong as Margaret ever was or possibly still is. Haven’t seen her since she set out to find that humongous snake and Grace went to find a nice place to settle down away from the moving town with you.” “So you haven’t seen mom?” Arizona wilted and I leaned over to nuzzle her gently, my poor cow just heard the news that sounded like her mother hasn’t been seen by this Callie in years. “Not a hint of her since the day she disappeared after telling Grace to go find a safer place to raise you, she obviously succeeded despite my misgivings and I owe Grace a deep apology now.” Callie continued looking ahead, we could see a well-lit town in the distance and looking up at the moon and looking back down at the town, it seems they were keeping the town as brightly lit as if it were daytime. “It was on one of the days that the town was going to teleport that you and your father got separated by it disappearing suddenly, then that the monster attack happened. I remember that we set out immediately and found you curled up against Texas ‘The Taurus’ Arid, the one time that the town’s most unusual feature of teleporting around The Range proved quite fatal for one of us. It’s become a cautionary tale, but know that it wasn’t your fault Arizona and your father loved you deeply. Enough talk about that sad day, I assume Grace found a more stable place for you to be?” Arizona seemed to be trying to cope with the memories of witnessing her father’s death given the pained look on her face as she clutched at her head. Eventually the look eased thanks to Paprika cuddling up against her, Arizona would likely try to focus on something else. She eventually nodded to Callie. “We moved around a lot, at least up until a few years ago where we found this nice little place in the middle of nowhere called Airship Mauled. I’m educated… by pony standards at least.” Arizona looked a little distant as if still reliving a nightmare, but she was still in the here and now. “It’s a common occurrence for airships to crash in that area, Grace is now running the Helping Hoof Inn there made out of a crashed airship. Tell me something, was Grace always…” She lifted a hoof and titled it side to side in reference to Grace, Callie stopped to see the gesture and chuckled a bit. “Yes, she’s always been a bit airheaded like that. We even grew up together in fairly good and loving network of cattle. It’s your mother that was the odd one out. She wasn’t born in Haven’s Patch and was an outsider with a rather crude attitude and then there’s the whole bounty hunter thing, which I’m quite sure you’ve heard about relentlessly.” We were almost to the town thanks to Callie and saw several cattle, both cows and bulls, standing in the light looking outwards in all directions with worry. One bull saw our approach and ran off to likely talk to someone. “Maggie, Grace and I spent more than ten years traveling together before we came back to Haven’s Patch, then your mother fell in love and had you. I even met a fine bull myself, but Grace… she was always a little different.” Callie looked back, saw us nuzzling against Arizona and smiled faintly. She turned back to the sound of hooves approaching us. “Misses Calloway are you okay?” The large blue bull asked, he was massive and muscular. Arizona seemed to gaze at him until I elbowed her making her focus on us as we came to a stop. “I’m perfectly fine Dakota, I can certainly handle myself and going out like that was just like old times. Though I certainly miss the banter of my friends by my side as we got into trouble.” Callie, or Calloway as Dakota called her, shucked the rope around her neck and moved forward to greet the large bull with a hug. “Ran into shadow monsters scouting around The Range for victims and all the animals in the surrounding areas have safely gone to ground. I suggest we prepare for a siege, because I think we have a lot of incoming. I want you to tell Montana and Colorado to prepare our defenses.” “Who are they ma’am?” He nodded to us getting off of the jagged ice sleigh. “One of them is Arizona Arid, yes… that Arid. The other two are… well I haven’t been introduced to them properly yet.” She turned around and smiled at us. “Welcome to Haven’s Patch, I’m Mayor Calloway and you are?” “I’m Velvet Iceberg La Perm, it’s a pleasure to meet you properly Calloway.” I was going to change my name anyway. I motioned to Tinsel on my back and then to Paprika. “This little cutie is my familiar Tinsel, that there is a nuisance to anything that she can feasibly get her hooves around. Her name is Paprika Paca and she’s special to Arizona and me, she’s also almost obsessed with hugging just about everything around her… like she’s doing right now.” Dakota looked a little uncomfortable with Paprika clinging to the side of his large form and hugging him, she looked up to us with hearts in her eyes at being talked about and then turned back to Dakota with her pupils returning to normal ovals. “Let me guess, it was love at first sight for you two right? It happens and you’re never going to be free of her, not that it’s a bad thing as she’ll do anything for you. Come along then, you shall be much safer in town. So long as we can keep a ring of light going around the town, we should be fine for the time being… unless the stronger shadows show up.” Calloway noticed the stares we were giving her as we moved forward while carrying our supplies. “Yes, they can get stronger and eventually become strong enough to a point where sunlight won’t outright destroy them anymore… at that point things will start getting really bad.” “Paprika, stop bothering the nice bull and follow us!” My harsh screaming made Paprika release the bull and she immediately came over to us. We made our way into town following Calloway and walked up to a bar and inn, it was more of a saloon really. The bartender didn’t seem to pay much attention to us, she was a bit busy at the moment. “You can rest here at Lily Bovine’s for the moment, then we can move on to my home.” Calloway turned a curious eye and a hint of a smirk to Arizona. “Unless you want to help in the defense of the town?” “Of course we want to help, right girls!” We nodded along with Arizona and then ordered some drinks, we had to translate Paprika's order. We spent the next few minutes relaxing, at least until I realized a question of ours wasn’t answered. “Paprika… I know you've avoided the question earlier and with a decent excuse… so what exactly did you do that you are so afraid of us knowing about?” I narrowed my eyes at Paprika as she started sweating a bit and pulled at her fur. “Okay Paprika, what did you do?" Arizona pressed after I did. "It’s going to be easier to tell us now then later.” Paprika gulped audibly and looked between us while grinning sheepishly, she reached into her fur and pulled out two envelopes. We each took them and pulled out the contents. “We’re what!!” My voice went quite shrill as I turned a glare to Paprika. -Arizona- “How the hay did you get the three of us married?!” It didn’t take long for me to figure it out. "It happened back in Las Pegasus… of course it did."