-Mount Aris Beach, Ocean Flow-
“I hope Sky Beak isn’t ruining those nice and smooth child bearing hips of his…” I muttered with a sigh at seeing my land bound hippogriff flying off again, he had a really nice butt.
“What was that mommy?” Quickly turning to Silver Stream, I smiled and thought of something to say quickly that wouldn’t traumatize my poor dear daughter and son.
Sure there may differences in values between hippogriffs, sea ponies and various other races, but the one thing that was constant was making sure young ears didn’t hear things they weren’t ready for yet.
“Oh it’s nothing my little stream, mommy is just thinking about how much she loves your father. Now have you two thought of a game we could play with the beach ball together?” I held my flippers together while smiling at my children and the strange mare named ‘Skelly’.
Skelly stayed behind to watch after their boat while Mr. Fortitude and Mr. Flamberge were up Mount Aris with the hippogriffs.
Blade and Ryu were here on business and while they were all friends, they were going to likely go their separate ways as soon as they are done here.
Didn’t know a single thing about the multiple tailed talking fox that spoke oddly though.
-Six and a half hours later, Mount Aris, Hippogriffia, Flamberge-
Blade would be busy for a little while longer and then she would search for that hippogriff scholar she’s looking for, Astral something or other. Hippogriffs were friendly and welcoming, but there were some of them watching us like hawks as we were outsiders.
They kept themselves well contained and didn’t often let people in, Blade would have been hard pressed to get by the guards and Ryu seemed to prefer the less violent approach as he didn’t want to wreck their whole military force by himself.
Fortitude said that Ryu could do it and I believed him after he took one of Dispel Grace’s attacks with his bare hooves, that’s notable when Dispel Grace has gotten stronger with using said attack.
Hopefully we would not be graced with Dispel’s presence again anytime soon after he got hit by his own deflected attack. Got my moneys worth when it came to Fortitude’s shield and then some, a worthwhile investment that my brother was happy with.
That the materials the shield was made of happened to be actually illegal in some places didn’t seem to bother Fortitude. Even figuring out how to mold such stuff into a shield was an impressive work of blacksmithing from wherever it came from, I wasn’t asking for the origin and I didn’t care at this point.
“I think I might have a knack for making money!” Well at least I had a knack for making a lot of money that fit into a single carrying sack, at least I had the funds for buying something for Gene now.
“Well that is better than being known for being lit on fire, lighting other things on fire or just being loudly obnoxious, should we change your title?” The grin on Fortitude’s face made me glare at him. “I am just jesting brother.”
I snorted at him and just shook my head.
“I’ll just get this back to the boat and then we’ll go grab some food…. that’s not from the local Hay Burger!” The hippogriffs weren’t exactly great at cooking Hay Burgers. “The guys here aren’t quite there yet with being ready for actual customers. So how are you getting along with the locals?!”
“I am getting along with them fairly well.” Fortitude followed behind me. “Can I help you with the sack brother, you spent the last six hours working and it looks heavy.”
“No, I’m definitely carrying it and don’t need your help at the moment!” I’m tired, not frail or invalid at the moment. The hippogriffs are hungry today and they needed a lot of personal attention, so I’m doing just fine with the heavy sack slung over my shoulder. Also I think I needed to stab my instincts in the gut a few times, I did not distrust my brother in any given way and he was definitely not trying to steal from me. “You can follow me if you want to though!”
As we made our way for the entrances of the two hippogriff statues facing each other, we passed by Sky Beak in the middle of a conversation with a large female hippogriff.
Said female hippogriff had colorful bright pink to purple plumage with indigo splotches in the shape of water droplets inside, she also had three blue feathers at the crest of her head with white four pointed star shapes in them.
“The only way I’ll turn anyone into a sea pony is if we’re all forced out of our homes here in Hippogriffia.” The female hippogriff stated. “Still, I’ll consider it Sky Beak. If I make one hippogriff a sea pony on request, then all the hippogriffs will want to become sea ponies at one point or another and I’m not dealing with the mess of them all coming to me to be turned into various things. Someone might even want to be a chinchilla… a chinchilla Sky Beak!”
“Oh are you taking transformation requests, can I be a chinchilla?” A hippogriff asked and perked up.
“No!” Novo yelled at the hippogriff.
“Aw… I would have been so cute and fluffy too…” The hippogriff went off looking down. “Chinchilla’s are awesome…"
“You see what I have to deal with here Sky Beak?” Grunted the female hippogriff. “In the terms of strengthening the relations between our races, I find it rather annoying that I’m the elected queen of the hippogriffs and the born leader of the sea ponies. That I have to hold negotiations with myself to benefit both races is just exasperating! The hours of sitting in one place and talking to myself in front of a live audience is by far the silliest thing I do… still it is pretty fun to have a captive audience for some rousing performances in acting and singing.”
“Thank you for your consideration Queen Novo and you really do deserve the leadership role, but didn’t you do the transformation thing once already when that tsunami ravaged what is now our coastline and made Hippogriffia unlivable for a while? It didn’t always use to be this tropical as you very well know.” As Sky Beak talked I just shook my head and continued forward, I was being rude by eavesdropping on their private conversation. “That’s why Seaquestria was… and the sea ponies… it could very well happen again. At least talk with your sister Ocean Flow about it. Your daughter Skystar wants to hear more…”
“Of course you’d mention my sister again with that loving tone! That you should even bring my daughter into this... I should have turned you into an Axolotl at the first opportunity I could! I will admit that it could happen again and I said I would think about…” The last words I heard from Queen Novo as I walked out of hearing range were somewhat foreboding and I was halfway listening to their words at this point. “Something was awfully odd about that sudden storm, because the potency was…”
-A few hours later, Hippogriffia outdoor bar-
There I sat under the veranda on a stool with various other hippogriffs listening to my strange tales, some were of Airship Mauled or Jaded’s sillier exploits.
“So that’s how she escaped Canterlot on a unicycle!” A round of cheers and laughter rose up around me as I chugged some salmon juice.
“Good, you’re still here and Novo hasn’t run you out yet! She’s not exactly keen on outsiders being here or happy that I hired some outside help for work, goodness knows she despises the Hay Burger even if outsiders are not going to be working there. I need your groups help with something dangerous as you seem able bodied and talented… also you might be dim enough to not be scared by the prospect of possible imminent death.” Perking up and quirking an eye at Sky Beak, I was wondering what he could use our help with. “Remember when you suggested we outsource Diamond Dogs to dig that cavern to the sea? It didn’t take us long to find some that are willing to work for us, in fact they arrived twenty minutes after you started teaching our hippogriffs how to work a Hay Burger. Said hippogriffs are still progressing at an even pace, as for the workers we called in… there’s been a bit of a snag.”
“Are the Diamond Dogs revolting?” Itching for a fight and to use a few things I learned from Bengal and Blur Step, Sky Beak had my full attention.
“To be honest, when are Diamond Dogs anything but revolting in most cases?” He chuckled and shook his head and gestured at me. “No, they aren’t the problem. We’re paying them well and they’re doing good and quick work, though their hygiene still leaves something to be desired. The problem is that they’ve just about hit the water and found out that there’s a dangerous monster that we absolutely want out of the way and its cavern is parked in the middle of where they’re digging. We do not want it coming out anywhere near our aeries and we have no idea what it’s doing there or how it’s managed to survive for so long in a sealed off cavern.”
“Okay and… you hippogriffs are built tough and already know how to fight, why would you need me or my friends to help?” If the hippogriffs are having problems with something, then it sounded interesting to at least look into and or fight before we leave. “What exactly is this creature that you’re having problems with and is it hard to fight?”
“Well… we definitely want the monster relocated, but I don’t think killing it will be all too easy a prospect to achieve.” Sky Beak seemed to be dodging the one important fact. “To that end we’re having problems even working up the nerve to face it or approach it with something that feels like a plan or concerted effort to deal with the issue.”
“Again, what is it?” There was a sinking feeling that I was about to drag my brother and possibly Sweetcakes or Skelly into danger. “I’m not taking on anything that I don’t know the name of.”
Someone had to watch the boat and it would likely be Sweetcakes, because keeping away from that kitsune was really hard to do when she could change her shape so readily. At least Sweetcakes was always recognizable by her size, that never changes between whatever form she happens to be in at the time. Better yet… leaving Skelly behind would make it less likely that anyone here finds out her slightly horrific secret.
“It might be a buggane… we’re not entirely sure about that.” Did Sky Beak just say buggane? What in the world is a buggane? It sounded rather dangerous at the very least. “It’s a big mole like beast with a terrifying visage.”
Did I just say my thoughts out loud?
“Could it be a maulwurf?” I’ve seen one of those things at least.
A maulwurf was mostly harmless if it had a steady supply of food. If that were the case, it had no reason to attack anyone. Here however… there weren’t any myrmekes. There might be plants that a maulwurf likes, though I doubted that was it as they weren’t exactly beasts known for living in tropical regions.
“Oh no, it is most definitely not a maulwurf and it gives off a deadly aura that the Diamond Dog Diggers Clan won’t go anywhere near to finish digging out the pathway to the sea.” Well Sky Beak seemed honestly and earnestly worried about this, I was already going to agree to lend my sword to the cause. “We’re all too terrified to be in the monsters presence for too long, it’s also far too small to be maulwurf and it has orange glowing eyes. The eyes are why we think it’s a buggane we’re dealing with here.”
“What do you know about bugganes exactly?” Not going into this blind if this head hippogriff is this spooked, well I think he’s a leader of some quality or sort.
“It is what is termed as the large mole version of a honey badger, it is a known fact that they are really quite intelligent and happen to be very sore losers in a fight.” Shivering, Sky Beak hugged himself. “If they catch you, they don’t go for the kill until you can’t feel pain anymore and they are considered evil creatures for that reason alone.”
“We’re willing to take it on!” With that prideful statement, Fortitude thrust his new shield towards the sky.
“Of course we are!” I pulled my sword and raised its flaming visage to the sky as well, at least it wasn’t asleep this time. “Though I wouldn’t mind asking for Ryu’s assistance in this first!”
“Agreed, we are not knowing how strong this creature actually is and any help is quite warranted when dealing with the unknown.” Fortitude grumbled out as he lowered his shield to the ground.
“I would ask Queen Novo for help, but she’s already busy enough as it is and this isn’t that big a problem considering it’s not coming up from the depths after us.” So Sky Beak is sending us down there to root it out since everyone else is too busy? “Still, we’re too busy looking for problems coming in from outside of Mount Aris to bother with problems inside it already at the moment. I’m actively part of our grand navy and military structure around here. So if you need any extra supplies, hippogriff power or anything else, then you’re welcome to request any resources for routing the monster from us. We already have a cage ready for you to drag it off and away from us to release it into the wild.”
“I want to get a gauge of the creature before I bother you for resources, but we’ll keep that in mind in case it’s too much of a problem Sky Beak.” I turned to Fortitude who nodded and we set off to find out what Ryu was doing around here. “Also is the cage sitting near the entrance?”
“Yes, it’s there right now, so whenever you’re ready to deal with it, get someone to find me and let me know.” Sky beak took off to patrol the region.
-Mount Aris Peak-
Apparently Ryu was communing with nature, he was just sitting there in the glade that seemed to sing next to a small stream. There was also Sweetcakes lying beneath a tree sleeping peacefully.
“Hey Ryu, do you feel up for a scrap with something dangerous?” I said as I approached him. “They think it’s a buggane and we’re being asked to see if we can deal with it before the hippogriffs give it a real try.”
“Buggane? The name of the creature sounds interesting at least. So I take it you are not leaving soon, Blade-san is still working on locating the scholar to even open up a dialogue with him.” It seems Ryu wasn’t actively helping Blade on this thing. “I may have to be her mouthpiece depending on whether or not you’re still around."
Ryu always seemed to be a bit emotionally stiff to me.