//------------------------------// // Chapter forty-nine, Mountain and Molehills: Sand. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -???, Fortitude- “Where are we now?” I asked curiously. The mist took a few seconds to disappear and in that time some words were said by the three tailed fox glaring at my brother. “You will not lose me. We will become friends in time. I am quite upset.” The fox definitely looked upset even as she relaxed with us. She also looked a lot like Sweetcakes, except she had three tails instead of six. “Magical this boat, strange wondrous powers it has, now we’re somewhere else.” “Can you blame me for trying to ditch you?!” Flamberge seemed put off by the fact that the fox was traveling with us. The fox in response just shook her head no, so she couldn’t actually blame my brother for trying to… why was my brother trying to ditch her in the first place? “What happened to you Sweetcakes?” After Ryu said that I blinked at the fox. “I found a passion, chasing a handsome dragon, with willful rationale.” Sweetcakes wagged her tails as she looked at my brother with hunger. I think she is being quite crazy to go after Flamberge, my brother wasn’t exactly the most attractive dragon in the world. “She gave up half her power to pursue your brother? Odd, but the significance is not lost on me that she is outside of Neighpon for the first time… I expect the world to be destroyed within a week.” Ryu’s dry commentary was followed by several noisy stomps. We turned to the two silent mares as they pointed forward as the boat slid onto a beach with a mountain looming ominously over us. We were surrounded by jagged rocks and it was quiet, Skelly was once more in her skeletal visage as we sat there. I looked at the large mountain wall before us, there was some signs of civilization thanks to the carved wing like motif and large spire the mountain had on it. “Are we bedding down for the night? We have had a long day… doesn’t help that our sleeping hours are going to be messed up by all this traveling.” It was of some vague concern to me, all good Yaks needed sleep to keep up their strengths. With good sleep came good strength, plus I had a shiny new shield to wave around and practice holding and thrusting. “We can find out where we are tomorrow, Skelly can take up watch for a few hours as she doesn’t need sleep.” They all agreed with that as we stepped out of the boat onto the beach. Skelly grabbed my attention and made a few motions that I interpreted to mean that while she didn’t need to sleep she did actually like to do so given how long she went without it. She then took up her axe and looked about. Ryu looked a little lost, he had not been very far from Canter Dojo before and he looked a little sad after he was seen off by his girlfriend Silk Tapestry. Blade pulled a map from her near empty saddlebags to scrutinize it, she had picked up some supplies for herself at the orphanage. Sweetcakes kept staring at my brother until her longing gaze eventually slid to the ocean, she stared out at the water as if she had never seen so much of it before. Skelly stopped looking around curiously and then started helping me with the setup of our camp. Flamberge picked up a fishing pole and started to fish, I am not liking meat too much and would prefer something more to my taste. I went into our supplies to get something to eat, everyone else had some roasted fish thanks to my brother. I spent the rest of the night weighing my shield with my left and right hooves, it was a well-made and balanced defensive item with incredible might. A bit larger and heavier than I was used to, but I would make it work for me. Ryu is knowing Cat and Hawk when Flamberge mentioned them, they do good work as a married couple. For some reason the knowledge that they were married surprised my brother, it didn’t surprise Sweetcakes though. The kitsune just rolled her eyes at Flamberge’s surprise, before pushing him over with her tails and then settled down on top of him comfortably despite his protests. -The next day- I had my new magic reflecting shield upon my back and looked about in the morning mists of the mountain’s beach we settled at last night. I turned to the groggy looking Blade. “Are you having any idea where we are?” I knew Blade had been looking at a map with markings on it last, said markings had three locations and I had an idea as to what those were. Blade nodded and pulled out her map, I looked at the location that was marked down on it. We were currently at Mount Aris? I looked up at the spire at the top of the mountain and looked back at Blade. “It doesn’t look like the map.” My comment made Blade pointed at the map and made a circle motion. “Oh… we’re at the back of Mount Aris.” Blade pointed at me and nodded, apparently we were somewhere she really needed to be. “I am glad that we were capable of helping you get here.” We obviously saved her a great deal of time having to travel here. “It is fortuitous that Travel On thinks we need to be here the most at the moment, otherwise you would have had to travel quite a distance.” She gave me a weak smile, I hoped friend Blade knew what she was getting herself into. Looking away from Blade, and leaving her to her thoughts, I moved over to where Skelly and Sweetcakes were bouncing a colorful beach ball back and forth between themselves. “Where did you find a beach ball?” I ignored the fact that my brother was fishing again and passed by Ryu silently contemplating the horizon like Sweetcakes had done last night. “Lonely inflatable, it sat there whimsically, with fun to be had.” Sweetcakes hit the ball over to Skelly with a tail, she lazily bounced it right back and looked to be simply having fun. “Um, excuse me… but that’s the beach ball me and my big sister play with, we leave it down here so my sister and I won’t lose it.” We all jerked and looked up at the little hippogriff that hovered overhead. He had greenish blue colored feathers from his head and tail. He rubbed nervously at his white fur with his claws. “Anyway… um… I’m Terramar, I don’t mind you playing with our ball as long as you leave it here. Who are all of you anyway?” “I am Fortitude, the fantastically fragrant! That is my brother Flamberge the Fiercely Flammable and our good friend Skelly the Superbly Spirited. We have another brother, but he is off doing something else.” I pointed out our three person Viking team first in turn, then I pointed out the others. “That is Ryu of Canter Dojo, Blade Bright of Airship Mauled and Sweetcakes is also from Canter Dojo, they are some good friends of ours.” “Hey brother, ready for some… ooh are you making some new friends?” We turned to the water as a pony with a blue mane and pink fur popped up, she had strange looking ears. She seemed to be sporting fins as they stuck up out of the water behind her. “Hold on a second, I see something shiny!” She immediately dove down in the direction my brother was fishing with her dolphin tail flopping down into the sea. I had quickly realized what she had seen, the elder of the two siblings seemed to be one of those repeatedly mentioned sea ponies that Jaded went on about. “Flamberge reel in your pole!” I yelled at Flamberge, he did so quickly and his hook left the water before the sea pony could accidentally hurt herself on it. The sea pony just flopped onto the beach chasing after the fishing hook and seemed to be smiling at it. “What’s that? It’s pretty!” This sea pony probably shouldn’t be left alone near sharp objects. “It’s a fishing hook and it’s not a good idea for you to be near it.” Flamberge didn’t want to hurt the sea pony and kept the fishing pole well away from her. “That’s my big sister Silver Stream, she’s a bit bubbly and that runs in the family on my mother’s side to a large degree.” Terramar sighed before he flew over and gave the sea pony a big hug, the sea pony welcomed this and nuzzled her little brother. “So see any sirens or mer-ponies lately sis?” “Nope, and even if I did I’m not supposed to go near strangers because they could be dangerous... like sharks!” She released her brother and propped her finned hooves under her chin and smiled at us. “I still think sharks have pretty teeth though, but I probably shouldn’t let them be near my face… or my body for that matter. It’s a really bad idea to be near them if you have a cut or a small scrape. What’s it like to live on land, my brother has tried to explain it all to me and I still don’t understand most of it!” “It’s nice at times and bad at others.” I can be assured in this knowledge, because it was the same as anywhere else. “Huh… usually it’s nice around here and nothing bad happens to anyone. The hippogriffs are especially nice… my father is one and even gave birth to me on this beach!” Silver Stream confused me somewhat, didn’t she mean her mother gave birth to her on this beach? “I wish I didn’t know that mom gave birth to me underwater...” Terramar muttered loudly and shivered. “Yeah that was honest mistake, our mommy wanted to try what daddy had to go through with me and nobody could have expected him to be a hippogriff!” From the way Silver Stream acted with how she held onto her brother, it sounded like Terramar had a rather problematic birth. “Thank goodness Aunt Novo was there or I wouldn’t have a little brother to hug and love!” “Um… what?!” Very eloquent Flamberge, though I wouldn’t have been that much better. “I wonder what Dodgy is doing.” Ryu grumbled while crossing his hooves in front of himself. -Neighpon Noodles, ???- “Hello…” I looked upon the nine tailed red fox with a faint smile from beneath my conical straw hat. “Inari, running around as a pony today?” “As any other day, this is who I am as a mortal.” I spoke verbatim and calmly. “Though I’m surprise that no one questions a fishing hook not being cut upon a blade of holy power without some… divine intervention.” “Cute… any news today Inari-sama?” Good old Red, always straight to the point. “Yes, actually. It seems the ninjas are being thrown at the Tengu Mafia today, they really shouldn’t have made a move on Ryu-kun’s territory before he left. If they were smart they would have waited until after he was gone, but they would have been less honorable to do so.” I chuckled dryly, the Tengu were always batting a thousand on the poor plans department. It wasn’t a sanctioned attack either, but the reprisal was going to be a lot worse than that failure of an attempt to muscle into Ryu’s territory. “Table for one please…” “Of course, so who’s paying the ninja to attack the tengu mafia?” Red asked curiously. “Did I stutter old friend? They are literally being thrown at the Tengu Mafia, Dodgy Gruff isn’t exactly being subtle with that cart load of tied up ninjas he’s dragging around.” We both started laughing as my dear friend sat down across from me. “He’s always such a card since that stick was removed from his backside and he was unleashed upon the poor, poor factions of Canter Dojo. Without Ryu to keep him entertained, he is quite frankly going to go nuts. I favor him just for the humor he brings into the lives of those around him.” -Tengu Mafia Headquarters, Oi’baka Sector- “So a bunch of our men went to try and take on 'The Dragon of Canter Dojo' and failed horribly… not only that but our territory has shrunk by half in the last few hours.” The tengu boss fanned himself with his war fan and glared at the broken cast covered tengu before him. He slapped his left claw against the desk, becoming angrier by the second. “Can someone please explain to me why our territory is currently being taken over… by one… single… mutt! He is just one Diamond Dog, how can you be losing to him so badly as to have half our territory pronounced as his?!” “He’s really strong sir, I don’t know what to tell you otherwise aside from the fact that he’s throwing ninjas at us and they are taking us out of the air.” The generally seven foot tengu told the eight foot tengu with white and dark grey feathers. “Are the ninja running guerilla tactics against us?” The boss asked. “If not, then how are we losing against them?” “No the ninja aren’t attacking us, the Diamond Dog is literally just throwing them at…” A pony shaped body smashed through the nearby wall and collided with the reporting tengu’s skull knocking him down and out. “We’re under…” The mafia boss tried to cry out before receiving two hooves in his beak by a bound and tied up kunoichi pony. What followed was a ninja pony hitting him headfirst in the chest staggering him and then he was knocked down by a third pony body slamming into him sideways at his belly. The mafia boss slowly rolled onto his chest and tried to push himself up, he was then hit with a sumo wrestling sized pony dressed in a ninja outfit. The mafia boss felt his spine crack under the pressure of the heavyset pony now on his back. He just gave up on trying to get back up and stopped trying to make any sudden movements. “I honestly don’t know how that one qualifies as a ninja, but I can work with it!” Dodgy shouted up to the mafia boss on the fifth floor from the street, hundreds of feet away from the building standing next to a wagon load of bound and gagged ninja ponies as the people of O’baka stared on in horror as Dodgy continued his one person assault against the entirety of the tengu mafia. “Paybacks is a wonderful cutie to me and I like to pay it with interest, especially with these government paid mercenaries! Say while you’re up there, do you suppose you could do me a favor get some dirt on him?” The stallion now being held up in Dodgy’s grip whimpered, nodded and soiled himself, the order in which he did these things really didn’t matter as he soon to be sailing through air with loosened bindings. “Good, I won’t beat you up as much the next time you cause me to chase you halfway across Canter Dojo.” Dodgy tossed the stallion up and then slammed the baseball bat into him to send him rocketing for the pagoda housing the tengu mafia. “I should bat ponies around like this more often, I might even actually work up a little sweat.”