//------------------------------// // Hraesvalgr // Story: Scarlet // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Scarlet didn’t move. She barely even dared to breathe. Her eyes were locked onto the dragon, albeit she was making a very concerted effort to not stare into its eyes. If this was a dragon that had grown to enormous sizes due to greed, it would be operating on animalistic instincts, and she had no desire to provoke it with an unintended challenge. Lens was doing much the same, although Prim and Sclera were too focused on busily fussing over each other to worry about the dragon for the moment. It stared back at Scarlet with a cold, unreadable look. For what felt like an age, it glared into her very soul before leaning back and opening its mouth. Scarlet tensed, half expecting a rush of flames. “You stand now in the territory of Hraesvalgr,” the dragon declared, its deep voice echoing loudly in the silent trench. It carried such power that Scarlet could feel it in her ribs, making them shudder, and her heart skipped a beat. Lens perked up. “Hraesvalgr?” he asked in surprise. “That’s a very old draconic dialect…” Scarlet risked a sideways glance at Lens before returning her attention to Hraesvalgr. At least now they knew the dragon could speak. She cleared her throat and did her best to raise her head in spite of her grievous wounds. “Greetings, Hraesvalgr. You have our thanks for your timely intervention.” The dragon snorted. “Do not mistake me. You are trespassers just as surely as the swarm I saved you from,” he said slowly and deliberately, lowering his head down so that he could look at her more closely. “The difference is you are capable of thought. I shall not warn you again; turn back now and take your leave of this place.” Scarlet’s blood chilled in her veins. They couldn’t turn back now, else they’d be walking right back into the hooves of their enemy. She lowered her head in a respectful bow before speaking again. “With respect, we cannot turn back. There is nothing but death for us that way. We are merely seeking to peacefully pass through,” she tried, keeping her voice as humble as possible. “We are of no threat to you. I humbly request that you allow us to continue on our way.” “Do not try my patience, pony,” Hraesvalgr shot back with impatience. “Your problems are of no concern to me. My faith in your kind is spent, and I would be alone.” Scarlet watched with dread as the dragon unfurled his wings to take flight, letting out a deep, guttural growl to nail down the point and shut down any attempts at a counter-argument. But then his eyes fell on Sclera and Primrose, and he froze. Scarlet followed his gaze, confused. After a few seconds, Hraesvalgr’s wings folded back against his sides, and he lifted his head with a bewildered frown. “...Although, I must admit to being curious. It is a rare thing indeed to see ponies and changelings traveling together, even more so that the changelings walk with their true skin bared for the world to see.” “We know the difference between Ferals and the Free,” Lens offered hopefully. He nodded towards Sclera and Prim. “Thanks to these two. They showed us the truth.” Hraesvalgr stared at him skeptically before turning his eyes back to the two changelings, a softer look on his face. Specifically, his eyes fell on Primrose. “Does this pony speak the truth, child?” he asked. Primrose squeaked and ducked behind Sclera to hide from his emerald gaze. A moment later, she poked her head out to offer a timid nod. “M-mhmm. I told them…” she managed to say. Hraesvalgr fell quiet, his expression shifting with indecision. Scarlet watched with bated breath, confused by his sudden interest in her chitinous companions. Judging by his expression and the softer tone of voice he had adopted, however, it seemed likely that he had some familiarity with Free changelings. If that was the case, it meant that they now had a chance to convince him to let them pass unharmed. She opened her mouth to speak, but Hraesvalgr beat her to it. “Tell me, all of you: What purpose drives you to cross these peaks?” he asked curiously, falling back to his own haunches. “Are there no roads or paths that would see you to your destination safely?” Scarlet took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts. “...Perhaps there are, but our circumstances demand haste and discretion. We seek the aid of villages along the coast north of here, but we cannot afford to waste time or energy seeking out a side road. Our supplies are low, our strength is dwindling, and our enemies are ever close at our hooves. It was our hope that crossing through these mountains would keep us safe from them and afford us a faster, albeit more treacherous, route…” Hraesvalgr eyes her skeptically for several seconds before offering a slow nod. “I see,” he rumbled before looking up at the sun. Scarlet couldn’t see his face, so she instead turned her attention to Primrose and Sclera. “You are okay, right?” Prim asked, her eyes glued onto the distorted burn on her mother’s chest. Sclera grimaced in pain but nodded. “Y-yes… I’ll live… what about you? Are you okay?” she asked through tightly clenched teeth. Primrose nodded shakily. “Mhmm… thanks to you and Scarlet and Lens.” “And the lamp?” Primrose hesitated, her ears drooping. She sat down on her haunches and carefully extracted the old artifact from her saddlebags to show to her mother. Scarlet eyed the lamp, her expression darkening considerably. How much suffering had been caused in the name of that blasted thing now? Every time she saw it, it seemed like the agony surrounding it had doubled. “Scarlet,” Lens whispered, touching a hoof to her side. “Your injuries. We need to tend to them.” It was then that Scarlet’s mind remembered how brutalized her body was. She let out a sharp gasp and crumpled to the ground. She screwed her eyes shut, her breath coming in heaving gasps as all of her various bite marks burned intensely. The adrenaline was slowly starting to fade, and with it, her body’s ability to keep itself awake. “Hey, come on, stay with me,” Lens urged her in a frantic whisper. She heard his horn igniting with magic, and a moment later, the strips of her cloak that had been used to bind her injuries in the cave previously were returned to her body. This time to bind her new injuries and staunch the flow. Her eyes opened just a crack to stare at the bite mark on her hoof as it was wrapped in the thick blue fabric, and she grimaced. The cloth was still stained red with her now-dried blood from days ago, but for want of anything else to stem the flow, it was the best they could do. “There, that should ease the pain, at least for now,” Lens said once he was done. “How are you feeling?” Scarlet groaned, gingerly pushing herself back to her haunches. “Like I just about got eaten alive by a swarm of hungry demons,” she remarked in a dry tone. She turned to stare at him. “Did I have to answer, or was it really that hard to figure out?” Lens gave off a quiet chuckle, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “Heh. Not even a brush with death can dampen your fiery personality, can it?” he asked. Scarlet didn’t say anything. She lightly brushed his hoof away with a sigh before looking down at the ground, her ears drooping. “...I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you…” Lens’ smile faded, his eyes turning down to look at the floor. “I… no, I’m the one who should apologize. I should have taken the hint. I just…” he sighed and lifted her chin with his hoof, so they were eye-to-eye. “I couldn’t bear to see you eating yourself up like that… I’ve always known you to be a confident and collected mare. To see you falling apart at the seams like that, and knowing that it was a lot worse than it looked, thanks to Prim and Sclera, I… what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just do nothing.” Scarlet’s eyes widened for a second. Then she smiled and touched her hoof to his. “...Your heart was in the right place,” she said to him in a low, gentle whisper. She glanced over at Primrose, her expression softening with regret. She had almost gotten that poor foal killed again with her outburst… it was a lucky thing that this dragon had come to their rescue when he had. “...I’m not ready yet,” she finally said, turning back to Lens. “To forgive myself, I mean…” Lens sighed quietly, retracting his hoof. “Will you ever be able to?” he asked quietly. “I remember what you said… do you honestly believe that what you did is unforgivable?” Scarlet fell silent. She wrestled with her words for a time before nodding. “I do… I broke every promise I made her. I can never take that back, Lens…” Lens reached out to grab her shoulder again. “Maybe not… but you saved her mother. You gave her back her family…” he assured her before leaning in somewhat closer so he could stare deep into her eyes. “And you set an innocent changeling free from her unjust imprisonment. You’ve redeemed yourself in my eyes, and in theirs…” Scarlet swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. After a second, she pulled away and looked down. “...Well, maybe one day,” she whispered, though she very much did not believe her own words. “But it is not today… so please, just…” she looked back up at him one more time. “...Let me cope with my mistakes in my own way. I will make things right, but I can only do it when I am ready to.” Lens nodded in understanding. “Alright… just… don’t try and carry all of that weight all on your own, okay?” he asked, letting his hoof wander down to rest over her heart. “You’re not alone. Not anymore. We’re here for you… we can help carry that weight. All you need to do is let us.” Scarlet placed her hoof on his and smiled. “Thank you… I appreciate it.” The moment was suddenly interrupted when a deafening roar from Hraesvalgr tore out across the trench, forcing everypony present to cover their ears. His booming voice followed not a second later, loud and enraged. “THAT LAMP! WHERE DID YOU GET IT?!” Scarlet’s heart leaped into her throat. As her ears stopped ringing, she turned her eyes up to stare at the dragon in complete and utter disbelief. His own draconic gaze was glued onto the blue crystal lamp, which now lay on the grass. Primrose had dropped it to cover her ears. Lens was quicker than Scarlet, putting himself between the battered changelings and the enraged-appearing dragon. Primrose cowered behind him, cradled in Sclera’s protective embrace. “I-It’s a family heirloom!” Sclera shot back carefully, covering as much of her daughter’s body as she could with her own in spite of her injury. “It was passed down to me by my mother!” Lens glanced back at her for a fraction of a second before returning his attention to Hraesvalgr. “Why? Does it mean something to you?” he asked in as disarming a tone as he could manage. Scarlet forced herself back to her hooves and dragged herself painfully over to stand by his side, spreading her stance to defend the two changelings. Hraesvalgr glared at them for several seconds, his eyes wide and his pupils narrowed into razor-thin slits. Then, with what sounded like a gravely sigh, he slowly relaxed and lowered his head to their level. “Yes… it does,” he replied, his voice lower than Scarlet had been expecting. She and Lens shared a glance. This dragon was just full of surprises. She turned back to him, curiously. “W-what do you know?” she asked. Hraesvalgr was quiet for a few seconds before closing his eyes. “I know everything there is to know about it… for I was there when it was created.” “What?!” Primrose’s voice came, loud and amazed. The filly, despite her mother’s grasping hooves and protestations, bounded out to stand before the great wyrm. Her glowing eyes stared up at him in wonder. “You were?! What is it for?! Who made it?! What’s inside of it?!” Hraesvalgr’s eyes snapped open, and he quickly lifted a claw to silence the child’s barrage of questions. He glanced from side to side, seemingly struggling with something. Whatever it was, one side eventually won out over the other. He looked back down to the assembled group, his expression darkening. “...Not here. I would rather not run the risk, however small, of eavesdroppers.” With that, he rose back to a full standing position. He turned and extended one wing down towards the group, creating a makeshift ramp. “Climb on. You are wounded, and I would not waste time going on foot. We can speak more at my home. And there is somepony there who would very much like to meet you… all of you.” Scarlet blinked. First, this dragon showed up and saved them from a swarm of unprecedented size, then he demanded they turn back the way they came, only to immediately rescind that demand upon discovering the changelings in their midst. Then he had seemingly become enraged at the sight of the lamp, then revealed he knew all there was to know, and now he was offering to bear them upon his back to his lair? “How many more surprises is this wyrm going to throw at us?” she wondered before turning back to the others, a small war raging in her mind. For all they knew, this dragon could have just thrown together a fanciful lie to try and lure them back to his home so he could feast on them as a light snack. He was a predator, after all. On the other hoof, if he was telling the truth about any of this, then the answers they had long sought may finally be within sight. All they had to do was climb on and not fall off… Not like they had much of a choice. They didn’t want to piss off the big purple dragon, did they? With a shaky nod at the others to follow her, Scarlet began to ascend Hraesvalgr’s wing. The leathery membranes between the fingers bent slightly under each of her steps, and she could feel the empty air beneath them. It was deeply unsettling, and she forced herself to walk faster until she was on the dragon’s back, nestled between two of the large green spines that ran down his back like massive swords. The others joined her soon enough. Primrose was first, seemingly ecstatic at the prospect of finally learning about her lamp, which she now cradled close to her chest in her hooves. She got comfy a few feet behind Scarlet, watching as Lens and Sclera brought up the rear. The stallion was supporting Sclera’s weight on his shoulder, guiding her slowly but steadily until they were both seated on Hraesvalgr’s back. “Hold on to something,” the dragon ordered as he rose back up, his wings spreading wide to catch the wind. “And don’t drop the lamp.” Without waiting for a response, he gave a mighty flap of his wings and took to the heavens. Scarlet swayed in place, crying out in alarm. She hooked her forelegs around the spine nearest to her, her hind legs kicking instinctively at their sudden rise in elevation.  It was a humbling experience, being this high up this quickly. But more than that, she could feel the raw strength in the muscles with every beat of the dragon’s wings. It was undeniable that this creature was ancient and had survived many battles. No wonder the swarm had fallen so easily before him. Scarlet glanced back to confirm the others were still on board before turning her attention forward. Over the top of Hraesvalgr’s head, she was treated to a view that stole her breath away. She could see the entire mountain range from here, the peaks and ridges almost looking like exaggerated wrinkles in the skin of the earth.  “By The Five!” Lens’ voice came from behind her, shouting to be heard over the rush of wind in their ears. “This is amazing!” The stallion’s eager proclamation was soon joined by the delighted squeals of Primrose not far away, and Scarlet couldn’t help but offer up a tiny smile at the sound. Oh, how she had missed it.  With that thought making her cold heart beat just a little warmer, she mentally prepared herself for what was to come next as Hraesvalgr dove back for the mountains. Soon, all of their questions would be answered.