Murgröna's Testimony

by Powerdrainer

Growing Difficulties

Danny once more found himself hurtling through the bizarre space of energetic strings at ludicrous speed, mind spinning as he tried to get a grip on what he just saw… What he had done… Didn't he? 

Before he could come to grips with the chaos in his mind, he was pulled into another string of energy, and his mind went blank. 

With a full-body shiver, she pulled one of her hooves out of the cold white; glaring at the offending frost with a heated glare while the numbing chill of the cold cycle sapped what little warmth and energy she had left. Aided further by the howling wind as it whipped around her light purple frilled mane and tail and making it a lethal hazard to even try to fly. 

None of her horde should have to be out during the cold cycle, but their numbers had grown too large. The last several clutches larger than any had expected, and now their food reserves were stretched thin to the point where they could no longer stay under the rock and wait for the return of the hot cycle. 

They had to hunt, and do so in the cold white.

Unfortunately, most of their prey also hid to wait out the cold cycle, forcing them all to spread farther and farther in search of what little scrap of food they could find. But the cold white was unforgiving, and those who dared to venture farthest rarely returned; their presence over their minds silenced, and further straining their reserves as the number of hunters dwindled as a result. 

This was as much a threat to her as it was starvation, for she had ventured farther than she had ever done before and found herself now over half a day's travel away from the rock, past the forest and out into a seemingly endless stretch of white covered fields which she spend the last several hours crossing, not sure how far she'd gone, or how much further she still needed to go. 

Exhaling a shuddering breath, a large cloud of condensation fogging the air before her as she forced herself to put her hoof down and continue moving. 

She couldn't stop. Not now. Her horde was counting on her to succeed. 

With stiff joints, dry and cracked lips, shivering body and runny nose she forced herself to push forwards; following a faint trail she had picked up on hours earlier. But the wind had blown away most of the prints she followed while also obscuring any sounds, and her stuffed nose not allowing her to smell for a scent forced her to utilize the least favored method of tracking among the hunters: Dumb luck.

Steeling herself against the cold as best she could, she trudged through the thick layer of white towards a small gathering of trees. A distance she would normally be able to cross in three heartbeats, Now though, she didn't even know how much she'd been slowed down. 

Eventually, she did manage to cross the distance and wasted little time looking for any sign of prey to drain. What she found, or heard to be more precise, over the near-continuous howl of the wind, were multiple impacts; a strange sort of sound nothing like any other she'd heard before.

Her curiosity piqued, and unable to find anything else that seemed like it could be of value to her, she moved towards the sounds. Then they stopped, and her ears perked up, twitching left and right to listen, not sure if she'd been seen. After all, she did stand out greatly with her black shell amidst the cold white. But just as sudden as it had stopped, the impacts resumed and she quickly honed in on the source; crouched low to make the cold white work in her advantage by concealing most of her, even if this came at the cost of it now pressing uncomfortably cold against her belly, she approached the louder and louder impacts from behind a tree.

Carefully moving around the trunk, she risked a glance at what hid behind the tree.

What she found both shocked and confused her greatly.

Three creatures, unlike any she had ever seen before. They were tall, and covered in the strangest kind of fur she'd seen on any kind of animal. Each unusual colored, and none the same, and oddly lumpy in places. A weird-looking skin covered most of their faces, with only a short muzzle poking out from underneath. They also seemed to carry pouches on their sides, bulging with who knows what inside. 

Yet despite this, there was also something oddly familiar to these creatures. Four hooves, a muzzle and a tail she saw poking out of this strange skin. And one of them seemed to have a horn as well. These things had a strange similarity in their form to her own.

With a grunt coming from the tallest and lumpiest of these creatures, an odd-looking object slammed down upon a tree log, splitting it in half.

Odd sounds escaped the creatures, their mouths opening and closing as the tallest stepped away, and the smallest of them, the one with a horn approached the split log. A chirp of surprise escaped her when she witnessed something even stranger. A light red glow burst forth from the horn, which also surrounded the broken log, lifting the pieces in the air. 

With a muted thud, the log pieces fell down in the cold white and, the three creatures looked around, alarmed. The largest of them holding its sharpened tool up and at the ready, its lethal properties clearly demonstrated and she quickly but quietly retreated back the way she came.

It had taken many heartbeats, but eventually, the strange creatures seemed to relax and the smallest of the three once again created the strange red glow with its horn, surrounding the split log with the same color and somehow lifting the pieces up in the air without touching it. 

She watched this happen from her new hideout, half-buried underneath the cold white, the freezing cold forgotten as she stared with wide eyes and confusion as the glowing and flying log pieces were split between the smallest creature and the third and placed in the strange pouches on their sides which, as she saw when they opened their pouches, were already full with other pieces of split logs. 

They seemed satisfied as more strange sounds came from their mouths, slowly moving away through the layer of white, leaving behind their unseen stalker as she watched and waited for the moment to leave her hideout. 

Perhaps a bit faster than she should have, she burst out of the small burrow she'd dug; flinging cold white everywhere while her stiff joints cried out in protest from the sudden movement. Yet she ignored it all as she silently followed after the creatures; watching as they left the collection of trees, crossed a hardened stream of water, then moved towards…

She froze. The objects she saw strange and unknown. And while there were some familiar traits with the creatures she could identify with, these things were unlike anything she had ever seen. But whatever they were, the creatures moved directly towards them. 

Frozen, both literally, but now also figuratively in indecisiveness, she looked at the retreating creatures and the objects with anxiety and fear. Her instincts screamed at her to leave, to return to the rock, to forget about this lest it would hurt her. But a painful twist in her stomach cut through these screams, reminding her why she was out here in the first place. She had to find food, and right now the only place that might have what she needs was right where she did not want to go.

Realigning her wings with a nervous flutter, she slowly, cautiously moved closer to the strange objects; hoping the least favored dumb luck would be in her favor.

From afar the objects looked strange, alien, unidentifiable, but now that she was closer to the strange things more detail became visible to her. What had seemed like a solid piece soon proved to be a creation of multiple trees stacked upon each other horizontally, with several square holes made in places. Within these holes, she found a most perplexing item: a crystal clear, incredibly thin yet surprisingly strong layer of not hardened water which allowed her to see through and revealing to her the hollow inside of the stacked tree construct. 

Inside she saw many strange things, most of which she could not begin to identify. Though there was a flat surface made of long pieces of a tree, standing on four branches strangely identical in width and length. On top of this flat surface many things lay, some of which she recognized as the fruits some of her prey ate. But the thing that really drew her attention was the light; a flickering, warm yellow and orange and... a spike of panic shot through her as she saw the fire rage within. 

She was already in the motions to run away, when movement caught her eye and she saw one of the creatures she'd followed. 

It was the smaller of the three, and the one with the strange glowing horn. A horn which one again shone red as its left pouch opened and a piece of the split log flew out. With a flick of its head, the log flew into the fire, before a strange rod lifted up next and was used to poke into the fire.

Seemingly content, the creature then proceeded to pull off the skin covering its face.

With a terrified screech, followed by a wild scramble to get away, she fled the horrific scene. Sounds coming from behind her telling her that the monster had rushed outside to see what happened, no doubt in her mind he was able to see her black form in the cold white.

Strange, loud and angry sounds came from the creature, and it did not take long before other of these creatures rushed out in alarm; all able to see the retreating speck of black as she ran over the hardened stream of water.

But the hardened water was slippery, her body frozen and hungry, and already pushed past her limits the last of her strength gave out just before she could reach the safety of the trees; her legs giving out and falling into the cold white with speed. It did cushion the blow a bit, but she still flipped over from the momentum, then hit her head against a rock hidden underneath the cold white.

Dumb Luck, it seemed, did not favor her.

Lying dazed in the cold white, the last she saw were several of the creatures closing in on her, some carrying fire with them. Then her world went dark.

There was movement around her, she could hear.

Subtle shifting, quiet breathing, and strange, hushed sounds could be heard as she slowly came to; her head throbbing but with a strange tightness surrounding it.

Realizing this, she tried to move her leg and try to free her head from whatever it gotten stuck into, only to become aware of the sudden absence of quiet sounds, and felt a building air of nervousness and apprehension. 

Her mind, still slow from the blow and cold, took several more heartbeats to process she'd made a mistake. The sudden, jarring halt in her motions the second she did not help her either.

Whatever kind of creatures surrounded her, they knew she was awake.

Realizing she could not escape her fate any longer, and with the will to face her end instead of lying in a cowering heap, she slowly opened her eyes; blinking sluggishly to clear her vision, slowly looking around at the, for now, blurred shapes.

At least she wasn't outside in the cold white anymore, she realized, only for her to jerk up as realization hit. A loud hiss escaped her as the pounding in her head grew worse from the sudden motion, clenching her eyes shut in reflex while hearing a clatter coming from someplace nearby as something fell to the ground.

Taking a few deep breaths to steady herself, feeling the pounding slowly recede, she became increasingly aware of the strange sounds now filling the air with rapid frequency.

Making another attempt to get her bearings, she slowly opened her eyes, blinked several times, and carefully looked around. She was no longer out in the cold white, that much was obvious. And from what she could tell, these creatures had taken her inside their strange tree stacked objects. They didn't eat her, though. At least, not yet. But surrounding her were several of the strange creatures, two of which she recognized from before; the one with the strange, sharp tool to split the log and the one with a horn. But while she recognized them, they were different from what she remembered. 

Both of them had removed the skin covering their faces, revealing a shockingly similar form to them, like she, or any in her horde had. Yet instead of hardened, black shell, they had a thick layer of fur. Large, expression full eyes looked back at her and, looking further, she noticed their pouches were gone as well. 

What kind of creatures were this for them to be able to change their bodies in such a manner? 

But even more surprising to her, were the other creatures present as well. These looked almost identical to her in basic form. No strange, lumpy in places skin or pouches hanging from the side. No skin to pull over or away from their heads. Just a lot of fur and even longer hair where she had a frill. Some of them had horns, while others had a pair of bird wings. And a couple she saw had neither.

Did they… could they truly change their forms in such a drastic manner?

A tremble ran down her spine, and it wasn't from the cold. 

Slowly, carefully, the creature with the horn she first saw out with the trees approached, its mouth opening and closing in strange patterns as the unknown sounds flowed from its lips.

She slowly backed away, finding herself in a corner, and she released a defensive hiss, showing her teeth.

A sound of alarm came from the approaching creature, and it quickly backed off while new, nervous sounds came from all the others, overlapping in an incoherent mess of noise to her as her eyes flicked from one creature to the next. 

She was in no shape to fight. The hunger alone had sapped her from the much-needed strength, but the cold white made this even worse. Not to mention the overwhelming number of creatures she had to fight to escape. And then there was the strange tightness surrounding her head, which became more and more noticeable she sat in indecisiveness.

Slowly as to not draw any unwanted attention, she lifted a hoof to her head to find out what was causing this uncomfortable feeling. To her great shock, instead of her hardened shell, she felt a strange softness.

Terrified, she started pawing wildly at her head, much to the shock of the creatures surrounding her. Eventually, she managed to pry off the strange thing, and it landed without a sound on the ground before her. 

It was a long white something. Maybe a strip of their strange skin?

She carefully pushed against it with a hoof. It shifted at her touch and, she ducked back into herself, scared. 

New sounds rose up from the creatures around her, further adding to her confusion. 

A sudden commotion rose up amidst the creatures, and quite unexpectedly to both her and, from as far as she could tell also the creatures, another, much smaller of these creatures pushed past the mass of legs, tripping over its own legs and tumbling towards her. 

Surprised, she looked at the small, leaf green creature as it came to a stop before her, somehow managing to have itself stuck in the long strip of white skin she'd just pulled from her head. 

Realizing its predicament the creature looked up with a sheepish smile, saw her towering over it, and fear quickly replaced any youthful enthusiasm it had to find out what all the others were doing.

Surprised by this sudden turn of events, she cocked her head, looking at the struggling hatchling as it fought to free itself.

Acting before she knew what she was doing, and before the larger creatures could react, she placed a hoof on the white strip of strange skin, then grabbed another piece in her mouth; her fangs quickly cutting through the strange stuff, and the added force of her pulling on it resulted in the strange thing tearing to pieces and freeing the hatchling.

Spitting the white piece of skin from her mouth with disgust, she kicked it away before looking down at the hatchling, realizing what she'd just done as she saw it look up at her with wide eyes. A shock which was mirrored by the other creatures who, as she only now realized, had gotten a lot closer in the few seconds she was distracted.

Once more she realized the position she was in and she quickly shyed back into herself as she made herself as small as possible. 

Her muzzle scrunched up, and with crossed eyes, she watched as the hatchling pressed a hoof against her muzzle, a strange tittering sort of sound coming from it as whatever fear she previous saw in it was now gone. Instead, she saw the appreciation he had for her help almost as if it radiated off of it.

she blinked, then blinked again. 

Much to her surprise and confusion, the hatchling in front of her did indeed radiate some strange kind of glow which, going by the reactions from all creatures present was an unknown to them as well. 

The glow slowly reached out in a whisp of energy which flowed from its hoof still pressed to her muzzle before seeping into her mouth.

With a startled yelp from both, they pushed away as much as possible; the hatchling looking at his still glowing hoof, shaking it to get rid of the strange wisp of energy still reaching out to her while she tasted… 

Smacking her lips, head tilted in puzzlement, then sniffing the strange wisp as best she could with a stuffy nose, there was no denying it. It was food. How, or why for that matter she did not know. This was as unknown to her as these creatures are, yet the hunger in her belly flared up at the taste of such a delectable meal, which made itself known with a loud groan and, she acted in an instinct she didn't even know she had. Somehow latching her teeth into the strange energy, she sucked in as much as she could, feeling her energy restore far quicker than she would have thought possible. Even more surprising, she found herself completely stuffed within moments, and couldn't force another gulp down despite the still present stream of energy still flowing from the hatchling who, along with the other creatures, looked at her with a morbid fascination.

Sitting up, wings buzzing, she gave a content chirp, before a loud belch escaped her. 

Silence.

They all looked at one another, she still with her mouth open, not sure what just happened, the creatures all with stunned expressions over what had just transpired.

Then, surprising them all once more, the hatchling fell over, clutching its sides while rolling over the floor, laughing so hard tears leaked from its eyes.

Slowly she looked up from the joyful hatchling to the older creatures, not sure what happened, or how it happened, but maybe with the help of the least favored dumb luck, she might have found a way to help all the others under the rock. 

The creatures were restless around her, she could sense. 

How it happened and why she could not find an answer to, just that it happened shortly after when she first saw and subsequently feed on the strange wisp of energy coming from their hatchling, but she could somehow 'feel' how the creatures around her felt. 

It was a curious thing, but even more so it was frightening. What was happening to her? Did these creatures do this? If so, then why did they look surprised when this energy came from their hatchling? Not to mention, they don't 'feel' like they understood this strange situation any better than she did. 

Adding to this, she still had to find her way back to the rock and share with her horde the discovery she'd made. At least, that was until this unknown ability started to present itself. 

She needed to know if it was safe and posed no threat to any under the rock, and so, with the fall of the bright light above now underway, and the climb of the sky's rock imminent she sat still in the same corner she'd backed herself into prior, not daring to move too much. 

Most of the creatures had also left, maybe after finding out she didn't mean them harm, or maybe for some other reason she didn't know, but four of them remained; two with a horn, one with wings, and one without either but much larger than any of the others. Neither of them had these strange skin like she saw on the first three, and she took her time to study their formes in better detail.

All four were of different color, with the two-horned creatures having light blue and dirt brown fur. The one with wings was a light red, and had more curves than the other three. And the last, with neither wings or a horn, was stone gray; and even from the distance between them, she could clearly see the muscles this creature possessed.

They were friendly for now, but she very much doubted she could best them in a fight. 

Blinking slowly, she turned her head to take in her surroundings, getting a proper look at the inside of one of these creatures stacked wooden constructs.

It was different to the one she looked inside through the square holes. For starters, there were no square holes to see through. There was no flat plate made of a tree standing on four same sized branches. No fire held within. and only a large, square hole she saw the creatures leave through, now closed off with two large plates of split trees. 

What were there with her, just as confusing to her as anything else, were these strange tree trunks… No, something else.

It was a strange cylindrical thing with slightly bulging sides, made just like everything else from split tree logs, and two strange bands looping around the sides made from a material she had never seen before. And there were many of these not tree trunks, filling most of the space she was in. 

Another thing she noticed was that, while still cold, it was quite a bit warmer in here. Unfortunately not warm enough.

A shiver wracked her body, and her teeth clattered together for a short moment, but it was enough to draw the attention from the creatures; strange sounds once again flowing from their mouths, then the one with wings shrugged and left, pushing open one of the two flat tree plates, the howling wind rushing in before it slammed the plate back with a loud wham.

A terrified chirp escaped her as she jumped up, clinging to the ceiling in fright as her eyes darted around; the creatures standing beneath her looking up at her with surprise and open mouths.

Several heartbeats later, the plate opened once again, then was put back in place with a lot less noise as the winged creature returned, holding something underneath a wing. Looking around, the creature saw the others look up, and its gaze slowly settled on her. Its mouth fell open as fast as the object it was holding underneath its wing while she pressed as much into herself as she could, eyes darting around.

Surprise, confusion, fear, she could sense it all coming from them, hanging thickly in the air as they stared at her. But hidden underneath of it all, there was something else but it took her several heartbeats to realize the excitement she could feel coming from the creatures below.

More sounds came from the winged creature, calling up. It took her a moment to realize the sounds were aimed at her. Cocking her head to the side, she looked down at the winged creature as it repeated the sounds it just made. The reason behind this she didn't know, but the sounds sounded… reassuring in a weird kind of way.

The creature repeated the sounds once again, and this time she slowly scaled the wall down, still keeping herself as small as possible, expecting anything to happen. 

Once down on the ground, and with a wall firmly at her back, she gave a quizzical look at the creature, by now starting to suspect it to be female and, in extend the others to be male.

The female made some more strange sounds, none of them sounding hostile to her, nor did she sense any negativity coming from the female through her newly discovered ability. But she hadn't come this far in life by being careless, and she kept herself low to the ground only for another shiver to run the length of her body, followed by a sneeze.

The female sighed out, turned her head to the males and made more sounds, to which one of the males responded in kind. 

The female shrugged at this, then moved to pick up the object she dropped a moment ago. 

It turned out to be a bundle of the strange skins these creatures wore, which the female layout on the floor before her, pointing a hoof at the skins then at her. 

Confused, she tilted her head, not understanding but carefully edging forwards to sniff at the skins.

They smelled… strange, not natural, not like skin at all. Backing away, she looked up at the female, tilting her head to the side in puzzlement.

The female seemed confused at first, then a look of realization dawned upon her and she slowly picked up a blue-colored skin, holding it up for her to see before the female slowly pulled the skin over her head, tucking in her ears underneath it. Moving her head from left to right, the female showed the skin covered the top and sides of her head, while two string hung loose underneath.

Pulling the skin from her head, the female held it out to her.

Unsure, she looked at the offered skin then back at the female who in turn looked at her with a thin smile. She could also feel a strange sense of excitement, which only further confused her. Still, she carefully reached out with a hoof, took the offered skin then, with many different thoughts racing through her mind about what might happen mirrored the action the female had shown her and placed the skin over her head.

A sound of joy came from the female as she sat down, clopping her hooves together in a strange fashion of approval. The female then proceeded to pick up another skin from the floor, held it up for her to see, then showed how to put it on. 

She was confused by all of this, more than she had ever been in her life, but once more she accepted the offered skin, placed it around her neck and looped it around a couple of times.

This went on for a little while as more and more skins were shown, demonstrated how to put them on, then given to her. 

At first, she was unsure as to the purpose of this exchange, but several heartbeats after wrapping a skin around her barrel, her wings poking through holes made for the bird-like wings the female had, she started to notice something. It became warmer. 

Surprised, she looked at the skins she now wore, a mismatch of colors but somehow giving her warmth. 

She looked at the female with confusion clear in her eyes, yet the female looked at her knowingly, making some more sounds as she glanced back at the males behind her.

Not paying much attention to this, she instead poked and prodded at the warmth giving skins with a hoof, unable to discern how this was possible but thankful for it nonetheless. 

Her gratitude to no longer feel like freezing mush have showed because the female drew her attention with a few sounds, laughed, then held out a hoof.

Looking at the hoof, but not being offered a skin, she cocked her head in puzzlement. Then, mirroring the action, she held out her own hoof; looking at it, then the female for any clue what to do. 

Much to her surprise, she female closed the distance, pressed her hoof against her own, then shook it.

Stepping away, but not lowering her hoof the female looked expectantly at her.

Looking at the hoof the female just shook, then seeing her stand there with her hoof still raised, it started to dawn on her what was happening. 

A chirp came from her, wings fluttering, she closed the distance, pressing her hoof against the female's and shook it in greeting.

The bright light had been up for many heartbeats, and the horde under the rock prepared themselves for another hunt out in the cold white in hopes of finding anything to eat. The oldest of the hunters already scanning the area around the rock for any signs of a wandering prey when one of their own called out to them over their minds. But her thoughts were confounding, strange, unknown in many ways, and the confusion it caused brought out the rest of the hunters from underneath the rock as well as their life-giver as they watched a lone hunter step out of the forest.

A hunter who carried enough food with her to last the cold cycle, who wore several odd colored skins and brought with her a discovery, which would forever change the course of their stories.