//------------------------------//
// Last Days of Vacation 
// Story: A New Brand of Freedom 
// by Spettro138 
//------------------------------//

Steve and Firebrand spent the next two days enjoying themselves as much as they could on their first leave. In the early part of the second day, Steve had taken Firebrand to the local library in town. During much of his childhood, one of his favorite pass times was reading. Particularly, fantasy novels were his primary go-to genre of books as a kid. In the back of the library, they found a pristine copy of his favorite childhood book: The Wizard of Oz.  Sitting up against one of the bookshelves, Firebrand sat in his lap as Steve read to him. Steve began to notice that Firebrand was a bit more intelligent than most toddlers of his age. More intelligent than he should have been. He seemed to be following along with him and even trying to vocalize some of the words in the book that he pointed to with the tip of his tiny red hoof.  Steve picked out a few other books among the collection that were actually printed in English to test out his apparent rapidly growing intelligence. He thought that perhaps he could treat Firebrand to a private screening of The Wizard of Oz movie.

On the third day, Steve and Firebrand went exploring the surrounding forests around Tarvisio. For most of the hike, they just walked through the brush and tall trees of the Italian mountains, taking in the cool, crisp air and appreciating the natural beauty of the forest all around. While on their walk, they heard a rustle in the thick brush. Thinking it might be a bear or some kind of predator, Steve instinctively pulled out his dented shield and his survival knife in the event they needed to fend it off. Fortunately, what came through the brush was a harmless family of deer. A doe and her two fawns came out of the brush carefully looking around for any sign of danger. When her beady eyes fell on Steve, they froze, trying to blend in with the background of the forest. When Firebrand turned around in his harness and looked over Steve's shoulder to see what made him stop, he began to coo at the sight of the deer. He hopped out of the harness and gently landed on the ground. The deer seemed to be intrigued by Firebrand as it slowly but surely made its way over to Firebrand to get a closer look at him. Steve backed off a few feet to give the animal a bit more space, so it could feel more comfortable with him around.

Firebrand was intrigued by the doe as well, as he also walked in her direction. When they were a few inches from each other, the doe began to sniff him. Sticking her nose into his red fur in an attempt to identify this strange red deer she saw. The sniffing made Firebrand ticklish as he began to giggle. In response, the doe nuzzled the little colt lovingly and gave him a lick on the face. Steve smiled watching the display unfold as the doe seemed to call her fawns over to meet the colt. The two spotted fawns came out of hiding and slowly approached Firebrand. They were unsure of him, keeping their eyes on him and waiting for him to come after them, so they could run away. Thankfully though, Firebrand sat on his plot and patiently waited for the fawns to come to him.  The doe walked towards the two fawns and pushed them towards Firebrand with her snout. 

Steve leaned up against a nearby Hornbeam tree and watched Firebrand play with the fawns for a solid two hours. Soon though, the doe called her fawns off so that they could continue with their foraging. Firebrand waved goodbye to them and went along with Steve back on their peaceful hike through the Julian Alps of Tarvisio. It wasn't much longer before they saw the Sun slowly sinking below the horizon and turned the entire sky into vibrant shades of gold, purple, red, and pink. Seeing Firebrand beginning to doze off in his harness, Steve decided to start heading back into town before it got too dark. 

The walk back into town was fairly uneventful except for catching a few of the members of the 107th fooling around with the local girls at the lake. Most of the town's citizens had been cleaning up and heading in for the night to prepare for the next day. He then found Dugan and Gabe, and at the local pub competing in a drinking contest.

As soon as they made it back to the south part of town, they checked back into the inn that they had been sleeping at for the past two days. Steve was beginning to feel the effects of sleepiness beginning to overtake him as he let out a big yawn. Making his way up the steps and down the hall, he made it to his room where the door opened with a groaning creak. Seeing the small bed on the other end of the room, he unbuckled his belt carrying his gear, and slung it over a nearby coat hanger. He then closed the door and used a nearby chair to jam it closed.

"Can't be too careful especially with Firebrand now being with me," he whispered to himself. "We're in a war after all."

He then moved over to the middle of the room as he slowly took off his stuff. Carefully taking the harness off, he set it down on the bed and picked up the sleeping form of Firebrand. Placing him on the bed, he slipped under the covers right beside him and stared up at the ceiling.

'Well, might as well start getting to sleep. Won't have any time for rest until we get to England,' he thought. 


He looked over to Firebrand who was snuggled up next to his side and smiled.

'You've been quite the handful for the past few days haven't you? I have a feeling you are going to cause a lot more trouble for me'

Turning his head to the nearby oil lamp on the end table, he twisted the nob until the light was extinguished, leaving the room in total darkness. 

He then wrapped an arm around Firebrand and slowly drifted off to sleep.





As the golden morning light of dawn began to peek over the mountains, Steve slowly, but surely stirred from sleep. His drill sergeants saw to conditioning his circadian rhythm to force them to awaken at the crack of dawn, no matter how late they stay awake. When his eyelids opened, he noticed the room was still mostly dark. Turning over to his left side, he saw that Firebrand was still sound asleep in bed. His little fuzzy chest steadily rose and fell as the small colt's breathing was barely audible even among the palpable silence of the room.

'I should probably start packing away my stuff before Firebrand wakes up,' he thought to himself. 'The Colonel will have my head if I'm late meeting the rest of the 107th.'

He did just that as he gathered what little he brought with him on their brief vacation and packed them away in his backpack. Carefully making his way over to the door, he carefully tried to pull the chair out from underneath the doorknob to unjam it. Unfortunately, he found that it was difficult to remove without making a sound.

'Damn, must have jammed it in there better than I thought I did' he thought as he struggled against the chair.

When he tried pulling harder, he accidentally broke the chair in half and fell backward on the floor. The doorknob launched off of the door, across the room, and impacted against the opposite wall. Jamming itself into the drywalling.

"Shit!" he whispered nervously.

He held his eyes closed for a moment expecting Firebrand to wake up wailing his lungs out.

After a few seconds, Steve was glad to see that Firebrand remained sound asleep in bed. He carefully got back up on his feet and sheepishly opened the door, thinking he probably would have to apologize to the owner of the inn and pay for the damages using the last of his vacation money.

He quickly walked back down the hallway and the rickety stairs, seeing if he could find some food to give to. Luckily, as soon as he came to the bottom of the steps, he found the innkeeper prepping the inn's tiny dining room for breakfast. She was setting up tables and opening the curtains once again for a new day. She was a sizable woman with rosy cheeks and a kind demeanor.

Steve opened his mouth for a moment, but then remembered he didn't know that much Italian.

"Uh...Scusi?" Steve asked sheepishly. 

The large woman turned around and her face lit up as soon as she saw him.

"Ah, welcome! You are quite the early riser caro (dear)." she greeted cheerfully. "Are you here for breakfast dolcezza (sweetie)? I'm afraid I haven't quite finished setting up the dining room yet, but you are welcome to sit down. I can get you a small cup of caffe (coffee) if you wish?" 

Steve let out a sigh of relief, thankful that the woman appeared to be able to speak English, albeit with a very thick accent. 

"No thank you, Senora," Steve politely declined. "I have an infant with me who is probably gonna be hungry in a few minutes here."

"Awwww, your little bambino?" she asked with a loving look. "I think I still have some of my niece's formula for her own baby bambino left over."

She left the room for a few moments, leaving Steve in the still dark dining room with only the candlelight illuminating everything.

When she came back out, she had a glass baby bottle filled with formula. She then handed the bottle to Steve and then began impatiently shoving him out of the room, much to Steve's confusion.

"Mangiamo Ragazzo, Mangiamo (Hurry up, boy, Hurry up!) Get that milk to your baby bambino (boy) right away or I'll start using my rolling pin as a billy club".

"Alright, Alright!" Steve replied bewildered.

He walked back into the main hallway of the first floor and started walking back in the direction of the stairs to the second floor. As soon as he got halfway down the hallway, he heard a loud wailing coming from the second floor.

"Ugh, hold on little buddy, I'm coming," Steve muttered. 

Steve began sprinting down the hallway and up the steps and made it back to his room in a matter of seconds.

He opened the door and found Firebrand wailing at the top of his lungs.

"Hey, hey, I'm here!" Steve called out to him as he came closer.

He came over to the bed and picked up Firebrand, trying to calm him down by rocking him back and forth gently.

Firebrand made a questioning sound as he halted crying for a moment when he heard Steve's voice. When he opened his eyes and saw Steve standing there, he buried his face in Steve's chest and began to whine.

"It's alright, Dada's here, I didn't leave you. I promise," Steve reassured with a comforting smile.

"Da-Da sta?" he babbled out with a sorrowful look in his big eyes. "Da-Da din lev?

"No, I didn't leave you, little guy, I promise. You don't ever have to worry about that. I was just getting you a little bit of breakfast before we head out, that's all."

He pulled out the glass bottle filled with formula and Firebrand took to it immediately as he cooed with delight and suckled down on the rubber nipple. Before long, Firebrand had drunk down the entire bottle as Steve took it out of his mouth and Firebrand gave him a big satisfied smile. Suddenly, Firebrand hiccuped loudly and launched a hot fireball from his horn. Steve barely had enough time to react as he quickly bent over backward watching the fireball glide just over his nose and impact against the wall on the other side. The wallpaper sizzled and smoked as it turned into a big black spot. 

"Wow, that I did not expect out of you." he chuckled as looked at the black spot on the wall with uneasiness. "I hate doing this, but we may need to leave this place quickly little buddy. The costs for the door are already probably gonna blow away the rest of the money I got from Peggy."

Next Time: Arriving in London